Secular Charlotte Mason

This idea is courtesy of my son.  

At some point in the last year I handed him a couple of lists of Great Books that I had been given. I told him for his free reading he really should chose some books from these lists along with his usual reading faire. He was amendable but when he saw the lists he drew a complete blank. At first I couldn't understand his blankness. Then, just as I began to realize what the problem was he started to explain that the lists alone were meaningless to him. While he had heard of some of those books/ authors there were just too many that he knew nothing about. How was he suppose to tell which ones were most likely to be interesting? Yes, a list with just the book titles and author's names is rather meaningless since the students do not have an adult's experience with such lists. Luckily, the Dover literature and humanities catalog came that very day. My sonwas looking through the catalog when he had a brilliant idea. Since the catalog include pictures and/or brief descriptions of many of the same books he would just choose his free reading from the catalog rather than the lists. Brilliant! You could do this with many other catalogs or bookstore fliers as long as the books they feature are of the quality you want your child reading. 

Yep, seeing those lists today and then getting the Dover Spring Sale email reminder reminded me of this idea from earlier in the year.