Calendar of Events
Click on event title for information.
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Long Novel Weekend
August 22-23, 2009
Great Books in Wine Country
October 3, 2009
Poetry Weekend
November 7-8, 2009
San Francisco Mini-Retreat
February 2010
Asilomar Weekend
April 16-18, 2010
Leader Training
May 2010
Annual Picnic
June 2010
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E-Newsletter Archives
Click on a month to view a previous issue
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September 2009
"At times our own light
goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause
to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within
us." - Albert Schweitzer
Dear Great Books Supporter,
We have added, at the bottom of this E-Newsletter, a "Share" link so you can share this publication with your friends on just about any of the social networks available. Check it out.
The Spring-Summer 2009 issue of Reading Matters, in full color, is available on our website or click here for direct access.
Included in this E-Newsletter:
- We still have some room left for Great Books in Wine Country.
- Registration forms are now available for Poetry Weekend
- The Great Books Team at Kiva is growing
- Check out Self Made Scholar in Useful GB Links. It is a great resource.
Now you can refer your friends to our website and they can sign up there also. Your friends need only enter their email address in the yellow box on the website and click "GO".
You can reach our website by clicking on "More about us" in the Quick Links box or by clicking on the GB logo at the top of this page.
We
are continuing the Great Books discussions founded by Robert Hutchins
and Mortimer Adler of the University of Chicago in 1947. Great Books Counci of San Francisco (serving
Northern California) is a volunteer organization of motivated readers.
We coordinate over 40 existing groups, provide leader training and
sponsor literary events in scenic locations.
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Great Books in Wine Country
October 3, 2009
There is still some room left for this event. Click here for more info. Every year in February GBSF hosts a one day mini-retreat in San Francisco to discuss a novel and view the movie made from that novel. We are going to follow the same format in Calistoga during the grape harvest by discussing Joseph Heller's Catch 22 for two hours in the morning and viewing the movie of the same name and discussing it in the afternoon. "One of the most bitterly funny works in the language . . . explosive, bitter, subversive, brilliant."---The New Republic. This from a reviewer online: ". . . Heller's thesis is fascinating, if a little adolescent:
everything and everybody is insane, especially during war. But because he takes
it to such an extent - you'd have to be crazy to want to fight, you'd have to
be crazy to want to kill, you'd have to be crazy to fly air force missions, you
can only get out of the war if you're mentally unstable but if you were
rational enough to want to get out of the war you could not claim insanity;
also systems are insane, bureaucracy is insane,  commerce is insane, the
military system is insane - it provides him with so much material that he has no
problem filling a whole book about the insanity of a single army unit. In the
end, it seems that I enjoyed the book in spite of myself. Now I want to see the
movie."
Purchase only this edition from your bookseller: ISBN 0-671-50233-6. For more information Click Here. For a registration flier Click Here. Please register as soon as you can. Calistoga is a lovely small town at thenorthern end of the Napa Valley at the foot of Mt. St. Helena. There are many excellent restaurants and delis in town, but no fast food, it's against the law.
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24th Annual Great Books Poetry Weekend
November 7-8, 2009
The Great Books Poetry Weekend is held annually (usually in November) at the Westminster Retreat in Alamo, California. Each year, the weekend includes three discussions and a Saturday evening poetry activity that entertains and involves all the participants. We are still undecided about what the program will be, but we envision a dramatic experience of the spoken word with full participation of our voices in solo, dialogue and group performance. Maybe Robert Browning's spirited and humorous version of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," or perhaps a series of related poems by one of Westminster's favorite voices, that of the Belle of Amherst-Emily Dickinson. The program will provide ample refreshment and entertainment for our poetry-jaded souls. Below are the poems we will discuss this year.
Theme: Telling Tales:
What He Thought Heather McHugh
As I Was Saying Bob Hicok
Signing Ceremony Clive James
Pomegranate Eavan Boland
Search Party William Matthews
I Am Your Waiter Tonight Robert Hass
and My Name is Dmitri
Kay Ryan Session, Current Poet Laureate and Marin resident:
Latents; Surfaces; The Second; Witness; The Material; Carrying A Ladder; Age
Potpourri:
No Forgiveness Ode Dean Young
Phallus Kazuko Shiraishi
The Song of Wandering Aengus W.B. Yeats
Whales Weep Not D. H. Lawrence
A Rabbit As King of the Ghosts Wallace Stevens
You Can Have it Philip Levine
Path to the Lodge
Registration information is on our websitenow. To go directly to a page from which you can download a printable flyer and registration form click here. For other information contact Theda & Oscar Firschein at 650-854-3980 or oscarf1@earthlink.net
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| "If a man empties his purse into
his head, no man can take it away from him. An investment in knowledge always
pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin
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New GB Discussion Group in San Francisco
Third Meeting: Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Eighteen people attended our lively second discussion with Rick and Kay White as leaders. We extend an open invitation to all in the bay area, especially San Francisco and Marin County to join us. The Library is near the Presidio and easy to get to. We have chosen to use the Introduction to Great Books anthology which has arrived and will be available at the October 13 meeting. Current plans are to meet on the second Tuesday of each month. Please notify Cliff if you wish to attend at clifford.louie@sbcglobal.net or by phone at 415-750-1786. Why War? by Sigmund Freud will be the work discussed at the next meeting. Email Cliff Louie for copies if you don't have them.Date: Tuesday, October 13, 2009.Time: 6 - 8 p.m.Place: Richmond Branch Library Location: 351 - 9th Ave. (between Geary Blvd. and Clement St.)Note: Keep an eye on this space for news of another Great Books discussion group being started by Laura Bushman in the El Cerrito/Albany/Berkeley area. The first meeting will be Monday,January 11, 2010. They
intend to work through all the GBF series beginning with the earliest available. Contact Laura at laurabushman@yahoo.com. |
GBSF Lending Team at Kiva
Kiva.org is an organization, headquartered in San Francisco, that has expanded on the original idea of micro-lending by offering credit to small entrepreneurs worldwide, especially in developing countries. The executive committee of the Great Books Council of San Francisco voted to form a lending team along with the more than 7,000 other lending teams at Kiva. Our team is now set up on the Kiva website. The GBSF team now has three members and has made sixteen loans so far. Click on either of the logos above to go to our team page. When you lend through Kiva, usually $25, your funds are combined with other lenders to fund a loan to a specific borrower whose history and reason for the loan and a picture are available at all times. When the borrower makes a payment or repays the loan the money is credited to your account to be redeemed by you or to lend to someone else. Here is an example of how Kiva works: The Santa Catalina Group loan has been partially funded by our team and has repaid 50% of the loan. Click here to learn more about these borrowers.
The members of the Communal Bank "Santa Catalina" are from the centre
of Cuyocc, Anco District, Province of Churcampa and Department of
Huancavelica. The community has a population of approximately 1500
co-proprietors. The city is primarily sustained by cultivation of corn,
wheat, potatoes and other products. In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan
but is part of a group of individuals bound by a group guarantee. Under
this arrangement, each member of the group supports one another and is
responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members if
someone is delinquent or defaults. Click here to learn more.
You do not have to make a loan to join our team. Click here to go to our team page. On our page, click on the JOIN NOW button at the upper right. Just enter your name, email, and a password and click on the Sign Up button at the bottom of the page. You can then click on the LEND button at the top of the page to choose a borrower and make a loan if you wish. Be sure when you make a loan that it is listed as a loan from our team. |
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Some Useful Great Books Links
GBSF is affiliated with the Great Books Foundation which was started in 1947 by Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler and produces most of the reading material used by Great Books discussion groups around the country. Their website provides a wealth of information and a list to find groups in your area or how to start a discussion group if one is not available near you. GBF also publishes Junior Great Books for use in schools or at home for K-12 students.
Symposium Great Books Institute Note: Sad News! Symposium is closing. After three wonderful years, we are moving to the next stage of our lives. Roxana is going to spend full time with her adorable new baby, Luke, while David and I have decided to move to Austin, Texas. We will close the store at the end of October.---Briana (Editor's note: If you have not had the pleasure of attending a discussion at Symposium, you better hurry.) Spaces in our October classes are going fast. If you are interested in participating please come in to register! Our three-session class on the Platonic dialogues is already sold out and the Mahabharata symposium only has two spaces left. Discussion schedule for the rest of September Tocqueville: Democracy in America - Five Monday evenings starting September 28th October classes: 1) The Mahabharata - Five Thursday evenings starting October 1st 2) Aeschylus & Mary Shelley: Prometheus Bound & Frankenstein - Four Saturday mornings starting October 3rd 3) James Joyce: The Dubliners - Four Wednesday evenings starting October 7th 4) Plato: Apology, Crito, and Phaedo - Three Tuesday evenings starting October 13th--CLASS FULL, REGISTRATION CLOSED Check the website for dates and times. Some of these discussions are full. 325 Hayes St., San Francisco, CA 94102 415-437-4000.
Center for the Study of the Great Ideas, founded by Mortimer Adler and Max Weismann, exists to help citizens understand why philosophy is everybody's business and to promulgate the insights and ideals embedded in Dr. Adler's lifelong intellectual work in the fields of Philosophy, Liberal Education, Ethics and Politics. This is a comprehensive website with something for everybody interested in Great Books and Great Ideas.
Classical Pursuits offers learning vacations around the world with location appropriate Great Books discussions. Our 2010 Calendar is now available at our website. Coming up in January: THE POESY OF KEY WEST, Selected poems of Elizabeth Bishop,
Wallace Stevens and Mark Strand
in Key West, Florida. We would love to have the pleasure of your company. Ann Kirkland also produces one of the best e-newsletters available.
Self Made Scholar is all about self-education - people learning what they want to know without formal schools or classrooms. Consider starting with the classics . . . delve into the literature that defines Western civilization and reflects the "great conversation" - an ongoing discussion seeking answers to society's timeless questions. Not only can studying the classics give you a greater understanding of history, it can give you a deeper understanding of what is going on in the world today. (Editor's note: This blog is a tremendous resource. For an introduction, click here.)
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"An honest heart being
the first blessing, a knowing head is the second. It is time for you now to
begin to be choice in your reading; to begin to pursue a regular course in it;
and not to suffer yourself to be turned to the right or left by reading any
thing out of that course." -
Thomas Jefferson
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Thank you for your interest in Great Books. Is there something you would like to know that we can add? This is your e-newsletter, so let us know.
Be sure to forward this email to your friends who might be interested in Great Books. Just click on Forward email at the bottom left.
Sincerely,
Jim Hall
Great Books Council of San Francisco |
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