“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
—Mark Twain

First of all Leisure Learning isn’t about schooling, it’s about education – the education you never got. An education is not just knowing what’s in books, it’s about the experience of reading and thinking and being changed by books. But reading great books on your own can be challenging and even frustrating. That’s where we come in. You’re like Dante, lost in a dark wood. We’re like Virgil, there to guide you through.

The approach of Leisure Learning is to give the great books the time that they deserve. Many people have had bad experiences with the greatest authors who ever lived, only because they were rushed through them.

How do we ensure that you have a great experience with the great books? 

First, all reading is done in class. That’s right, there is no studying or reading required or expected outside of class. You never have to worry about falling behind or not being prepared for class. To borrow a metaphor from Dante, we prepare a banquet – the food is cooked, the table is set, and you just need to sit down and enjoy. This approach ensures that you come to the text fresh and ready to receive impressions and ideas from it without being pre-conditioned by someone else’s explanation. During the course of each discussion, we will make sure that the text is understood but this comes about organically and not through a dry commentary or synopsis.

We also help you engage with a text on multiple levels so instead of being an intellectual exercise, reading a great book is something that affects you emotionally, aesthetically, and intellectually. None of this can be rushed, and that is why we spend the time with you that we do.