McConnell Center launches Why You Should Read Series

By Kara Beth Poe

Louisville, KY. (October 25, 2024)

Over the next year, the McConnell Center invites you to join us on the project to discover our next great reads. We are asking authors and experts to tell us why WE should read the books that helped shape them or those that have significantly impacted human history. 

We all know we need to read more, and millions of books are on shelves with new ones printed daily. How do we sort through all the possibilities to find the book that is right for us now?

Through YouTube video lectures and podcasts, these experts will give us core synopses of major works, help us comprehend what we might get out of reading them ourselves in the 21st century, and inspire us to pick up a great book or two this year and see where the adventure takes you.

“I am excited to learn more about authors I have heard about but haven’t read and to learn about new books I need to add to my library,” said Gary Gregg, director of the center.

We encourage you to join us in this project by watching lectures on YouTube or tuning into the McConnell Center Podcast, picking up one or more of the books we discuss, and reading them yourself.

The corresponding lectures will be available starting on the following dates:   

Oct. 29 – “Why You Should Read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein,”  Dr. Amy Sturgis

Nov. 04 – “Why You Should Read Aeschylus,” Dr. N. Susan Laehn 

Nov. 07– “Political Conspiracy? Why You Should Read Marcus Tullius Cicero,”  Dr. E. Christian Kopff

Nov. 12- “Why You Should Read James Huntington’s American Politics: The Promise of Disharmony,” Dr. Barbara Perry

Nov. 14- “Why You Should Read Dante’s Divine Comedy,”  Dr. Andrew Rabin

Nov. 19- “Why You Should Read Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death,” Dr. John Kleber

Nov. 21- “Why You Should Read Joseph Story’s Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States,” Dr. Carson Holloway

Nov. 25- “Why You Should Read John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty,” Dr. Aurelein Craiutu

Nov. 29- “Why You Should Read Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower,” Dr. David Anderson 

Dec. 03- “Why You Should Read Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451,” Dr. Gary Gregg

Dec. 05- “Why You Should Read Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World,” Dr. Gary Gregg

Dec. 10- “Why You Should Read Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man,” Lt. Col. Trivius Caldwell

Dec. 12- “Why You Should Read Mary Shelley’s The Last Man,” Dr. Amy Sturgis