Check 'em out: Recommendations for January

Now that it's a new year, people everywhere are resolving to improve themselves-- often by getting back in physical shape and shedding those holiday pounds. But let's not forget, also, the true satisfaction to be gained through exercising our minds and improving ourselves intellectually!

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You don't need to go back to college to obtain an impressive amount of knowledge on a variety of academic subjects.

Great Courses, from The Teaching Company, bring engaging, multi-part academic lectures into your home or car with courses on DVD and audio CD. Distinguished professors from the Ivy League, Stanford, Georgetown, and other leading colleges and universities have crafted in-depth, semester-worth courses for people like you-- seeking to improve your mind, enhance your education, and otherwise delight in the adventure of learning "without the tedious application/registration process, the astronomical fees, the undesired required courses, or the pressure of final exams."* And checking out these titles free from OCPL is the best value in college-level education to be found!

The San Juan Capistrano Regional Library offers a growing collection of Great Courses on DVD and CD, located across from our collection of books-on-CD. Currently available titles are:

• Lost Christianities
• The Life and Writings of C. S. Lewis
• A History of Hitler's Empire
• The American Civil War
• Augustine, Philosopher and Saint

Also, due to a generous donation from our Friends of the San Juan Capistrano Library group, these additional Great Courses will soon be made available:

• An Introduction to Astronomy
• Understanding the Universe
• God and Mankind: Comparative Religions
• Historical Jesus
• The Old Testament
• The New Testament
• How to Listen to and Understand Opera
• A History of European Art
• Origins and Ideologies of the American Revolution

Be the first to check out any of these DVD or CD lecture courses to begin accomplishing a most worthwhile New Year's resolution!

For more information on the Great Courses series or other outstanding academic tools available from OCPL, call 949.493.1752 or visit our reference desk.

*--As reviewed in The International Herald Tribune