On Nov 4, 2010, at 11:21 AM, Paul Butler (pbutler3) wrote:

> I would imagine this gets to the larger issue that the majority of people taking the survey haven't read these books. (Or perhaps this is a personal bias...but I think I am responsibly well read.) If you were to use a more modern selection of books, like the 100 best novels of the 20st century, perhaps the survey would be more relevant to those taking the survey.


Selecting a set of more modern books is Plan B, and the Harvard Classics may be a good set to use.

Right now I want to evaluate the "greatness" of the Great Books -- a set of literature brought together in 1952 as a tool to support one's liberal arts education. I figure if I can create a model of "greatness" -- which is very broadly defined -- then I might be able to apply the model to other corpus. For example, we might be able to determine other qualities of books such as colorfulness, degree of reading difficulty, or appropriateness for a particular set of students.

Fun?!

--
Eric M.