I’m glad you’re finding the reading plans helpful! Let’s continue the journey with the Year Five reading plan. This year will continue to explore the great works of Western civilization, diving deeper into literature, philosophy, history, and science, with the same focus on balance and depth.
Year Five: Weekly Reading List and Guide
Week 1
- Literature: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust (Part 1, Scenes 1-7) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologica (Second Part of the Second Part, Questions 6-10) [~40 pages]
Week 2
- History: Plutarch - Lives (Life of Julius Caesar) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche - The Gay Science (Books 1-2) [~50 pages]
Week 3
- Literature: Charles Dickens - Great Expectations (Chapters 1-15) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The Social Contract (Books 1-2) [~40 pages]
Week 4
- Science: Isaac Newton - Principia Mathematica (Book 3, Sections 3-4) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Baruch Spinoza - Theologico-Political Treatise (Chapters 1-5) [~50 pages]
Week 5
- Literature: Jane Austen - Pride and Prejudice (Chapters 1-10) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Sections 5-8) [~40 pages]
Week 6
- History: Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian War (Book 6, Chapters 1-10) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: René Descartes - The Passions of the Soul (Part 1) [~50 pages]
Week 7
- Literature: Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace (Book 2, Part 1) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche - Thus Spoke Zarathustra (Part 3) [~40 pages]
Week 8
- Science: Charles Darwin - The Descent of Man (Chapter 4: Comparison of the Mental Powers of Man and the Lower Animals) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Søren Kierkegaard - The Sickness Unto Death [~50 pages]
Week 9
- Literature: Virginia Woolf - To the Lighthouse (Parts 1-2) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: John Locke - An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Book 2, Chapters 13-21) [~40 pages]
Week 10
- History: Edward Gibbon - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Chapters 24-25) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Aristotle - Politics (Book 2) [~50 pages]
Week 11
- Literature: James Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (Chapters 3-4) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Michel de Montaigne - Essays (Of Cannibals, Of Solitude) [~40 pages]
Week 12
- Science: Galileo Galilei - Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (Third Day) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan (Chapters 32-36) [~50 pages]
Week 13
- Literature: Henrik Ibsen - A Doll’s House [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - The Phenomenology of Spirit (Part 3: Reason) [~50 pages]
Week 14
- History: Livy - The History of Rome (Book 7) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: John Stuart Mill - Utilitarianism [~50 pages]
Week 15
- Literature: Nathaniel Hawthorne - The Scarlet Letter [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men [~50 pages]
Week 16
- Science: Isaac Newton - Opticks (Book 3, Part 1) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Arthur Schopenhauer - The World as Will and Representation (Book 3, Chapters 1-2) [~50 pages]
Week 17
- Literature: Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Simone de Beauvoir - The Ethics of Ambiguity (Chapters 3-4) [~50 pages]
Week 18
- History: Tacitus - The Annals (Books 6-7) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Edmund Burke - Reflections on the Revolution in France [~50 pages]
Week 19
- Literature: Gustave Flaubert - Sentimental Education (Part 1, Chapters 1-5) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche - On the Genealogy of Morals (Third Essay) [~40 pages]
Week 20
- Science: Sigmund Freud - Civilization and Its Discontents [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Blaise Pascal - Pensées (Sections 11-13) [~50 pages]
Week 21
- Literature: Marcel Proust - Swann’s Way (Part 3: Place-Names: The Name) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: René Descartes - Rules for the Direction of the Mind [~50 pages]
Week 22
- History: Herodotus - The Histories (Book 5, Sections 1-100) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Aristotle - The Nicomachean Ethics (Book 6) [~50 pages]
Week 23
- Literature: Fyodor Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov (Book 1) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: John Stuart Mill - The Subjection of Women (Chapters 3-4) [~40 pages]
Week 24
- Science: Albert Einstein - Relativity: The Special and the General Theory (Chapters 1-5) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologica (Second Part of the Second Part, Questions 11-15) [~50 pages]
Week 25
- Literature: Emily Brontë - Wuthering Heights (Chapters 11-20) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche - The Anti-Christ [~40 pages]
Week 26
- History: Thucydides - History of the Peloponnesian War (Book 7, Chapters 1-10) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: John Locke - An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Book 2, Chapters 22-33) [~50 pages]
Week 27
- Literature: Henry James - The Portrait of a Lady (Chapters 1-10) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - The Philosophy of Right (Introduction) [~40 pages]
Week 28
- Science: Charles Darwin - The Descent of Man (Chapter 5: On the Development of the Intellectual and Moral Faculties During Primeval and Civilized Times) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Søren Kierkegaard - The Concept of Anxiety [~50 pages]
Week 29
- Literature: Thomas Mann - The Magic Mountain (Chapters 1-5) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Immanuel Kant - Critique of Pure Reason (Book 1, Chapter 1) [~40 pages]
Week 30
- History: Plutarch - Lives (Life of Cato the Younger) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche - Beyond Good and Evil (Chapters 7-9) [~50 pages]
Week 31
- Literature: Leo Tolstoy - Anna Karenina (Part 2) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Michel de Montaigne - Essays (Of Experience, Of Books) [~40 pages]
Week 32
- Science: Galileo Galilei - Two New Sciences (Second Day) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan (Chapters 37-41) [~50 pages]
Year Five: Weekly Reading List and Guide (Continued)
Week 33 (Continued)
- Literature: Herman Melville - Moby-Dick (Chapters 11-20) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Thomas Hobbes - Leviathan (Chapters 37-41) [~50 pages]
Week 34
- History: Livy - The History of Rome (Book 8) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: John Stuart Mill - On Liberty (Chapters 3-4) [~50 pages]
Week 35
- Literature: Fyodor Dostoevsky - Crime and Punishment (Part 1) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche - The Birth of Tragedy (Chapters 10-15) [~40 pages]
Week 36
- Science: Albert Einstein - The Meaning of Relativity (Part 2: The General Theory of Relativity) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Aristotle - Rhetoric (Book 2) [~50 pages]
Week 37
- Literature: Henry James - The Ambassadors (Books 1-2) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Immanuel Kant - The Critique of Practical Reason (Preface and Introduction) [~40 pages]
Week 38
- History: Tacitus - The Histories (Books 3-4) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Søren Kierkegaard - Either/Or (Part 1, Diapsalmata and The Immediate Erotic Stages or the Musical-Erotic) [~50 pages]
Week 39
- Literature: Charles Dickens - Bleak House (Chapters 1-10) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologica (Second Part of the Second Part, Questions 16-20) [~40 pages]
Week 40
- Science: Isaac Newton - Principia Mathematica (Book 3, Sections 5-7) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Michel de Montaigne - Essays (Of Repentance, Of Vanity) [~50 pages]
Week 41
- Literature: Thomas Hardy - Jude the Obscure (Chapters 1-6) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche - Twilight of the Idols (Chapters 1-5) [~40 pages]
Week 42
- History: Edward Gibbon - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Chapters 26-27) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Arthur Schopenhauer - On the Basis of Morality [~50 pages]
Week 43
- Literature: Virginia Woolf - Mrs. Dalloway [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Blaise Pascal - Pensées (Sections 14-16) [~50 pages]
Week 44
- Science: Charles Darwin - The Origin of Species (Chapters 5-7) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: John Locke - An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (Book 3, Chapters 1-6) [~50 pages]
Week 45
- Literature: Franz Kafka - The Trial (Chapters 1-4) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: René Descartes - Meditations on First Philosophy (First Meditation and Objections) [~40 pages]
Week 46
- History: Plutarch - Lives (Life of Pericles) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - The Philosophy of History (Chapter 2: World History) [~50 pages]
Week 47
- Literature: Leo Tolstoy - Resurrection (Books 1-2) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: Immanuel Kant - The Critique of Judgement (Book 2: Analytic of the Sublime) [~40 pages]
Week 48
- Science: Sigmund Freud - The Ego and the Id [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Jean-Jacques Rousseau - The Confessions (Books 1-2) [~50 pages]
Week 49
- Literature: Herman Melville - Bartleby, the Scrivener [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Aristotle - Metaphysics (Books 5-6) [~50 pages]
Week 50
- History: Herodotus - The Histories (Book 6, Sections 1-50) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Friedrich Nietzsche - The Gay Science (Books 3-4) [~50 pages]
Week 51
- Literature: Henry James - The Wings of the Dove (Books 1-2) [~60 pages]
- Philosophy: John Stuart Mill - The Principles of Political Economy (Book 1) [~40 pages]
Week 52
- Science: Albert Einstein - Relativity: The Special and the General Theory (Chapters 6-10) [~50 pages]
- Philosophy: Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex (Book 2, Chapters 3-4) [~50 pages]
Final Notes for Year Five:
Year Five’s reading list continues the comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach, integrating challenging texts that deepen your understanding of Western thought. As the readings grow more complex, this year aims to further enhance your critical thinking, philosophical inquiry, and appreciation of literature, history, and science. This year’s readings will help set a strong foundation for the remaining years in your Great Books journey.