About

I want to study history, but I've had a hard time figuring out where to start.

Then I came across Susan Wise Bauer's book, The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had. It's a book about how to educate yourself through reading, following three steps called grammar, logic, and rhetoric. These are classical education terms and they roughly translate to:

• Read a section
• Summarize what you've read in your own words and show you understand it
• Say what you think about it

Then there's the book list. While there is no definitive or comprehensive list of the "Great Books" that really exists, Susan Wise Bauer provides a few lists in a few different genres to get you started. Each list is arranged chronologically, starting with the earliest books in the genre and working their way to more contemporary ones.

So this is what I'm doing here. I'm reading through her history list, The Story of the Past, and posting some of my own little notes along the way. This isn't about me trying to write something great, it's about making an effort to absorb and understand the most influential books ever written.

Why Imaginary Inpho?

Imaginary Inpho is the name of a comic character I started drawing a while ago. He does a podcast interviewing dead authors recorded from a flying saucer in outer space. What I'm doing here is a little bit different, but the inspiration behind it is actually the same.

Let me know what you think

ianvanharten (at) proton.me