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I've made up my own, basically a compilation of other lists, which is why it's grown so unmanageably large. I've read a lot of the Russians and other 18th and 19th century books as I bounced around various universities, and that was much more fun. I had also read all the Greeks and Romans pretty intensely (though in English). so this seemed like a good way to fill in the gaps. But it is a slog sometimes. I add a healthy dollop of art and music of the period as well. I guess I'm trying to sort of immerse myself in the historical period I'm stuck in. Seemed like a good idea at the time...

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I like lots of medieval stuff! I went through a big old English and middle English phase. Never read any of the protestants though.

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My great books list, which is enormous and I am way too old to finish, is about half philosophy, theology, history and political science. I read chronologically which has its pluses and minuses. I'm stuck in the late Middle Ages, Renaissance and Reformation. And that contains a lot of very large books from Protestant reformers; Calvin, Luther, Hus and Wycliffe among others. And life is just too short to plow through all of those. So while I try to read exclusively primary works as you recommend, for these books I usually read a few chapters to get a good sense of how they write and the way they approach the issues of the day. But then I resort to summaries/analyses of their work to speed things along. Feels like cheating but otherwise I'd never move on to the "good stuff" of subsequent periods.

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What list do you use??? Personally I skip around at will! It would be sad to die without ever reading the Russians!

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