The Great Conversation is the first book of the series The Great Books of the Western World.  You can find it in the reference section of most libraries.  To understand my relationship with this collection, a little personal history is required.  I was an Electronics Vocational student in high school that graduated in the bottom third of his class.  Not a great start, but I graduated.  I went on to enroll in an Electronics Engineering degree program.  I did great my first trimester, earning a 4.0.  This boosted my confidence and I went into the second trimester thinking this is easy.  Unfortunately, most of the first trimester was over what I had learned in two years of high school vocational studies.  The real challenge was just beginning and I did not have the discipline and study skills to succeed.  My grades quickly plummeted and I dropped out. Shortly thereafter, I attended the Ohio State Fair and they had a booth selling the Encyclopedia Britannica.  Now this being 1982, Al Gore had not yet invented the internet and I did not have Wikipedia at my disposal.  With a little coaxing I was convinced to purchase the complete set of the Encyclopedia…