There are a few great books of Western civilization reading plans out there and I liked this one the best, so I thought I would give it a try. You can read more about this list here
FIRST YEAR’S READINGS
1. PLATO: Apology, Crito
2. ARISTOPHANES: Clouds, Lysistrata
3. PLATO: Republic [Book I-II]
4. ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book I]
5. ARISTOTLE: Politics [Book I]
6. PLUTARCH: The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans [Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Lycurgus and Numa Compared, Alexander, Caesar]
7. NEW TESTAMENT: [The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, The Acts of the Apostles]
8. ST. AUGUSTINE: Confessions [Book I-VIII]
9. MACHIAVELLI: The Prince
10. RABELAIS: Gargantua and Pantagruel [Book I-II]
11. MONTAIGNE: Essays [Of Custom, and That We Should Not Easily Change a
Law Received; Of Pedantry; Of the Education of Children; That It Is Folly to Measure Truth and Error by Our Own Capacity; Of Cannibals; That the Relish of Good and Evil Depends in a Great Measure upon the Opinion We Have of Them; Upon Some Verses of Virgil]
12. SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet
13. LOCKE: Concerning Civil Government [Second Essay]
14. ROUSSEAU: The Social Contract [Book I-II]
15. GIBBON: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [Ch. 15-16]
16. The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States, The Federalist [Numbers 1-10, 15, 31, 47, 51, 68-71]
17. SMITH: The Wealth of Nations [Introduction—Book I, Ch. 9]
18. MARX—ENGELS: Manifesto of the Communist Party
19. TOCQUEVILLE – Democracy in America [Vol 1, part II ch 6-8]
20. IBSEN – The Master Builder
21. SCHRODINGER – What is Life?
SECOND YEAR’S READINGS
1. HOMER: The Iliad
2. AESCHYLUS: Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides
3. SOPHOCLES: Oedipus the King, Antigone
4. HERODOTUS: The History [Book I-II]
5. PLATO: Meno
6. ARISTOTLE: Poetics
7. ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book II; Book III, Ch. 5-12; Book VI, Ch. 8-13]
8. NICOMACHUS: Introduction to Arithmetic
9. LUCRETIUS: On the Nature of Things [Book I-IV]
10. MARCUS AURELIUS: Meditations
11. HOBBES: Leviathan [Part I]
12. MILTON: Areopagitica
13. PASCAL: Pensées [Numbers 72, 82-83, 100, 128, 131, 139, 142-143, 171, 194-195, 219, 229, 233-234, 242, 273, 277, 282, 289, 298, 303, 320, 323, 325, 330-331, 374, 385, 392, 395-397, 409, 412-413, 416, 418, 425, 430, 434-435, 463, 491, 525-531, 538, 543, 547, 553, 556, 564, 571, 586, 598, 607-610, 613, 619-620, 631, 640, 644, 673, 675, 684, 692-693, 737, 760, 768, 792-793]
14. PASCAL: Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle
15. SWIFT: Gulliver’s Travels
16. ROUSSEAU: A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
17. KANT: Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
18. MILL: On Liberty
19. VOLTAIRE – Candide
20. IETZSCHE – Beyond Good and Evil
21. WHITEHEAD – Science and the Modern World [Ch I – VI]
THIRD YEAR’S READINGS
1. AESCHYLUS: Prometheus Bound
2. HERODOTUS: The History [Book VII-IX]
3. THUCYDIDES: The History of the Peloponnesian War [Book I-II, V]
4. PLATO: Statesman
5. ARISTOTLE: On Interpretation [Ch. 1-10]
6. ARISTOTLE: Politics [Book III-V]
7. EUCLID: Elements [Book I]
8. TACITUS: The Annals
9. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I-II, QQ 90-97]
10. CHAUCER: Troilus and Cressida
11. SHAKESPEARE: Macbeth
12. MILTON: Paradise Lost
13. LOCKE: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding [Book III, Ch. 1-3, 9-11]
14. KANT: Science of Right
15. MILL: Representative Government [Ch. 1-6]
16. LAVOISIER: Elements of Chemistry [Part I]
17. DOSTOEVSKY: The Brothers Karamazov [Part I-II]
18. FREUD: The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis
19. TWAIN – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
20. LEVI-STRAUSS – Structural Anthropology [Selections]
21. POINCARÉ – Science and Hypothesis [Part I – II]
FORTH YEAR’S READINGS
1. EURIPIDES: Medea, Hippolytus, Trojan Women, The Bacchantes
2. PLATO: Republic [Book VI-VII]
3. PLATO: Theaetetus
4. ARISTOTLE: Physics [Book IV, Ch. 1-5, 10-14]
5. ARISTOTLE: Metaphysics [Book I, Ch. 1-2; Book IV; Book VI, Ch. 1; Book XI, Ch. 1-4]
6. ST. AUGUSTINE: Confessions [Book IX-XIII]
7. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 16-17, 84-88]
8. MONTAIGNE: Apology for Raymond de Sebonde
9. GALILEO: Two New Sciences [Third Day, through Scholium of Theorem II]
10. BACON: Novum Organum [Preface, Book I]
11. DESCARTES: Discourse on the Method
12. NEWTON: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy [Prefaces, Definitions, Axioms, General Scholium]
13. LOCKE: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding [Book II]
14. HUME: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
15. KANT: Critique of Pure Reason [Prefaces, Introduction, Transcendental Aesthetic]
16. MELVILLE: Moby Dick
17. DOSTOEVSKY: The Brothers Karamazov [Part III-IV]
18. JAMES: Principles of Psychology [Ch. XV, XX]
19. CALVIN – Institutes of the Christian Religion [Book III]
20. FRAZER – The Golden Bough [Selections]
21. HEISENBERG – Physics and Philosophy [ch 1 – 6]
FIFTH YEAR’S READINGS
1. PLATO: Phaedo
2. ARISTOTLE: Categories
3. ARISTOTLE: On the Soul [Book II, Ch. 1-3; Book III]
4. HIPPOCRATES: The Oath; On Ancient Medicine; On Airs, Waters, and Places; The Book of Prognostics; Of the Epidemics; The Law; On the Sacred Disease
5. GALEN: On the Natural Faculties
6. VIRGIL: The Aeneid
7. PTOLEMY: The Almagest [Book I, Ch. 1-8]
8. COPERNICUS: Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres [Introduction—Book I- Ch. 11]
9. KEPLER: Epitome of Copernican Astronomy [Book IV, Part II, Ch. 1-2]
10. PLOTINUS: Sixth Ennead
11. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 75-76, 78-79]
12. DANTE: The Divine Comedy [Hell]
13. HARVEY: The Motion of the Heart and Blood
14. CERVANTES: Don Quixote [Part I]
15. SPINOZA: Ethics [Part II]
16. BERKELEY: The Principles of Human Knowledge
17. KANT: Critique of Pure Reason [Transcendental Analytic]
18. DARWIN: The Origin of Species [Introduction—Ch. 6, Ch. 15]
19. TOLSTOY: War and Peace [Book I-VIII]
20. JAMES: Principles of Psychology [Ch. XXVIII]
21. DEWEY – Experience and Education
22. WADDINGTON – The Nature of Life
23. ORWELL – Animal Farm
SIXTH YEAR’S READINGS
1. OLD TESTAMENT [Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy]
2. HOMER: The Odyssey
3. PLATO: Laws [Book X]
4. ARISTOTLE: Metaphysics [Book XII]
5. TACITUS: The Histories
6. PLOTINUS: Fifth Ennead
7. ST. AUGUSTINE: The City of God [Book XV-XVIII]
8. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 1-13]
9. DANTE: The Divine Comedy [Purgatory]
10. SHAKESPEARE: Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Twelfth Night
11. SPINOZA: Ethics [Part I]
12. MILTON: Samson Agonistes
13. PASCAL: The Provincial Letters
14. LOCKE: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding [Book IV]
15. GIBBON: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [Ch. 1-5, General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West]
16. KANT: Critique of Pure Reason [Transcendental Dialectic]
17. HEGEL: Philosophy of History [Introduction]
18. TOLSTOY: War and Peace [Book IX-XV, Epilogues]
19. KIERKEGAARD – Fear and Trembling
20. HUIZINGA – The Waning of the Middle Ages [I – X]
21. SHAW – Saint Joan
SEVENTH YEAR’S READINGS
1. OLD TESTAMENT [Job, Isaiah, Amos]
2. PLATO: Symposium
3. PLATO: Philebus
4. ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book VIII-X]
5. ARCHIMEDES: Measurement of a Circle, The Equilibrium of Planes [Book I], The Sand-Reckoner, On Floating Bodies [Book I]
6. EPICTETUS: Discourses
7. PLOTINUS: First Ennead
8. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I-II, QQ 1-5]
9. DANTE: The Divine Comedy [Paradise]
10. RABELAIS: Gargantual and Pantagruel [Book III-IV]
11. SHAKESPEARE: Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus
12. GALILEO: Two New Sciences [First Day]
13. SPINOZA: Ethics [Part IV-V]
14. NEWTON: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy [Book III, Rules], Optics [Book I, Part I; Book III, Queries]
15. HUYGENS: Treatise on Light
16. KANT: Critique of Practical Reason
17. KANT: Critique of Judgment [Critique of Aesthetic Judgment]
18. MILL: Utilitarianism
19. WEBER – Essays in Sociology [Part III]
20. PROUST – Swann in Love
21. BRECHT – Mother Courage and Her Children
EIGHTH YEAR’S READINGS
1. ARISTOPHANES: Thesmophoriazusae, Ecclesiazusae, Plutus
2. PLATO: Gorgias
3. ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book V]
4. ARISTOTLE: Rhetoric [Book I, Ch. 1—Book II, Ch. 1; Book II, Ch. 20—Book III, Ch. 1; Book III, Ch. 13-19]
5. ST. AUGUSTINE: On Christian Doctrine
6. HOBBES: Leviathan [Part II]
7. SHAKESPEARE: Othello, King Lear
8. BACON: Advancement of Learning [Book I, Ch. 1—Book II, Ch. 11]
9. DESCARTES: Meditations on the First Philosophy
10. SPINOZA: Ethics [Part III]
11. LOCKE: A Letter Concerning Toleration
12. ROUSSEAU: A Discourse on Political Economy
13. ADAM SMITH: The Wealth of Nations [Book II]
14. BOSWELL: The Life of Samuel Johnson
15. MARX: Capital [Prefaces, Part I-II]
16. GOETHE: Faust [Part I]
17. JAMES: Principles of Psychology [Ch. VIII-X]
18. STERNE: Tristam Shandy
19. BARTH – The Word of God and the Word of Man [I – IV]
20. BERGSON – An Introduction to Metaphysics
21. HARDY – A Mathematicians Apology
22. KAFKA – The Metamorphosis
NINTH YEAR’S READINGS
1. PLATO: The Sophist
2. THUCYDIDES: The History of the Peloponnesian War [Book VII-VIII]
3. ARISTOTLE: Politics [Book VII-VIII]
4. NEW TESTAMENT [The Gospel According to St. John, The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians]
5. ST. AUGUSTINE: The City of God [Book V, XIX]
6. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part II-II, QQ 1-7]
7. GILBERT: On the Loadstone
8. DESCARTES: Rules for the Direction of the Mind
9. DESCARTES: Geometry
10. PASCAL: The Great Experiment Concerning the Equilibrium of Fluids, On Geometrical Demonstration
11. MONTESQUIEU: The Spirit of Laws [Book I-V, VIII, XI-XII]
12. FARADAY: Experimental Researches in Electricity [Series I-II], A Speculation Touching Electric Conduction and the Nature of Matter
13. HEGEL: Philosophy of Right [Part III
14. MARX: Capital [Part III-IV]
15. FREUD: Civilization and Its Discontents
16. APOLLONIUS: On Conic Sections [Book I, Prop. 1-15; Book III, Prop. 42-55]
17. FIELDING: Tom Jones
18. FOURIER: Analytical Theory of Heat [Preliminary Discourse, Ch. 1-2]
19. MOLIÈRE – Tartuffe
20. AUSTEN – Emma
21. PLANCK – Scientific Autobiography
22. VEBLEN – The Theory of the Leisure Class
23. JOYCE – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
24. HEMINGWAY – The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
TENTH YEAR’S READINGS
1. SOPHOCLES: Ajax, Electra
2. PLATO: Timaeus
3. ARISTOTLE: On the Parts of Animals [Book I, Ch. 1—Book II, Ch. 1], On the Generation of Animals [Book I, Ch. 1, 17-18, 20-23]
4. LUCRETIUS: On the Nature of Things [Book V-VI]
5. VIRGIL: The Eclogues, The Georgics
6. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 65-74]
7. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 90-102]
8. CHAUCER: Canterbury Tales [Prologue, Knight’s Tale, Miller’s Prologue and Tale, Reeve’s Prologue and Tale, Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, Friar’s Prologue and Tale, Summoner’s Prologue and Tale, Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale]
9. SHAKESPEARE: The Tragedy of King Richard II, The First Part of King Henry IV, The Second Part of King Henry IV, The Life of King Henry V
10. HARVEY: On the Generation of Animals [Introduction—Exercise 62]
11. CERVANTES: Don Quixote [Part II]
12. KANT: Critique of Judgement [Critique of Teleological Judgement]
13. GOETHE: Faust [Part II]
14. DARWIN: The Descent of Man [Part I; Part III, Ch. 21]
15. MARX: Capital [Part VII-VIII]
16. JAMES: Principles of Psychology [Ch. I, V-VII]
17. FREUD: A General Introduction to Psycho-analysis
18. BOSWELL: The Life of Samuel Johnson
19. ERASMUS – In Praise of Folly
20. HUIZINGA – The Waning of the Middle Ages [XI – XXIII]
21. EDDINGTON – The Expanding Universe
22. T.S. ELIOT – The Waste Land