I love listening to music while I read. I’ve always done so, but recently, I’ve begun paring specific music with specific Great Books. The practice gets me in the right headspace for reading and also helps me to recall the books later on. I select an album or artist and listen to that exclusively while reading a particular book.

I’m currently reading Plato’s Republic and have settled on The Dave Brubeck Quartet as my musical accompaniment. I’m spending the entire month of September in The Republic, so my plan is to listen to as much of the Brubeck catalog as possible while reading.

Why Dave? I had a friend in high school who drove a Nissan Maxima with a 6-speaker Bose stereo system. At that time, Bose bestowed a CD of tracks to show off the system. One of the songs on that CD was Take Five by The Dave Brubeck Quartet. It sounded so good on that stereo.

In 2019, I took 52 weeks and listened to a different jazz artist each one of those weeks. One artist on that list was Brubeck. I instantly recalled Take Five and enjoyed listening to his other pieces.

For me, jazz reminds me of a period of deep intellectual curiosity in my life. During college at The University of Georgia, I spent countless evenings studying at the Jittery Joe’s coffee shop in Athens, GA. They always had jazz playing on the speakers. When I think of pursuing the intellectual life, I think of those evenings drinking coffee, reading, and listening to jazz.

Plato is hard for me. I’ve decided to read his complete works and I’m near the midpoint, but it usually takes me reading a particular dialogue three times before I begin to understand it. Prior to The Republic, I’ve been listening to Apple playlists called Relax, Focus, or Calm. I like them, but I wanted something different for The Republic.

Each morning, I wake up about an hour before my family, brew an absurd amount of coffee, turn on music on an old Bose Wave radio (that Maxima encounter at play), prepare my 0.38mm Muji pen, and open my book. As Dave Brubeck plays and the aroma of coffee invites me in, I’m taken back to the joy of reading and learning. The atmosphere tells my brain to get ready. It’s about to get exciting.

And it has been exciting. Despite the difficulty, I really enjoy Plato. The ah-ha moments more than make up for the frustration of not understanding during initial encounters. The more dialogues I read, the more I’m able to connect Plato’s ideas across his works and see how some dialogues actually answer his other dialogues.

My hope is that each time I hear Brubeck in the car, in a store, or in a coffee shop, I’ll think of The Republic and what I learned from Plato.

In this episode, a provide a quick introduction to the dialogue, walk through the main ideas, and close with Socrates’ conclusion.

Translations Mentioned:

• Plato Meno and Other Dialogues / Robin Waterfield / Oxford World’s Classics

• Plato Complete Works / Rosamond Kent Sprague / Hackett

August 2026 Reading

Plato • Melville • Cather

I continue to work my way through the complete dialogues of Plato. I spent this past month focused on the following dialogues:

• Charmides (on self-control)

• Laches (on courage)

• Lysis (on friendship)

• Alcibiades

• Hipparchus

• Rival Lovers

• Theages

I covered Charmides in my most recent podcast episode and embarrassingly referred to the dialogue as Charmenides (with an extra “en” in the middle) the entire time. I tried to re-record the episode and just couldn’t get it how I wanted it, so I added a mea culpa at the start and asked listeners to think Charmedies when I said Charmendies. Doh!

For Charmides, I read it first in the John M. Cooper edited Complete Works and then read it a few more times in that top book there in a Robin Waterfield translation.

I also read Billy Budd by Herman Melville and My Ántonía by Willa Cather for the Short Great Books reading group I lead at the start of each month. It was my first reading of Billy Budd and my second of My Ántonía. I really like My Ántonía.

Special Podcast Episode

Plato’s Ion • Ascend - The Great Books Podcast

I’ve been a listener of Ascend - The Great Books Podcast over the past few years. They’ve helped guide me through Homer and some of the Greek Tragedies. It was therefore quite an honor to join them for a discussion on Plato’s Ion dialogue about art, inspiration, and philosophy. You can read their Substack here - - and watch the episode above. If you prefer to listen, here’s a link to the episode.

September 2026 Reading Plan

Plato’s Republic

I’ve decided to focus the entire month of September on Plato’s Republic. My plan is to read it three times. I’ll start with the John M. Cooper edited Complete Works, move to Bloom’s translation and introduction, and then finish with the Robin Waterfield translation in that Oxford World’s Classics version. I’ve also heard that one should read Against Eratosthenes in Lysias before reading The Republic, hence the green Loeb on the top.

In October and November, I’m going to try to make it through as many of the remaining dialogues as I can. Here’s my current status:

• Read - Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Cratylus, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman, Parmenides, Philebus, Symposium, Phaedrus, Alcibiades, Second Alcibiades, Hipparchus, Rival Lovers, Theages, Charmides, Laches, Lysis, Ion

• September - Republic

• Yet to Read - Euthydemus, Protagoras, Gorgias, Meno, Greater Hippias, Lesser Hippias, Menexenus, Clitophon, Timaeus, Critias, Minos, Laws, Epinomis, Letters, Definitions, On Justice, On Virtue, Demodocus, Sisyphus, Halcyon, Eryxias, Axiochus, Epigrams

Recently Acquired

August Book Purchases

Here are the books I added to my library during August:

• Lysias - I purchased this in order to read Against Eratosthenes before reading The Republic

• Orphic Collection - This is the latest work in the Loeb Classical Library and someone mentioned that Plato references this quite a bit, so I thought it’d be good to have in the library.

• The Republic - Robin Waterfield translation - I’ve really come to like Robin Waterfield and wanted his translation for September’s focus on Plato’s Republic.

Bookish Adventures

I had a fun book meetup with three other guys pushing the reading envelope around the world. We met up in Franklin, TN and visited The Great Wall at Landmark Booksellers.

I have a new podcasting station setup in the corner of my office. This gives me a nice spot away from my working desk dedicated to the podcast. This also allows me to record video podcasts. I’ve noticed shift in user behavior around podcast consumption. Audio listens are down and video views are up. It was time to make the switch after 9 years!

I set aside one post per month to highlight my reading life. Books of Titans is a reading project aimed at seeking the ancient paths by reading The Great Books by 200 Authors chronologically over the next 40 years. Thank you for following my journey.

Charmides* is a dialogue of search and the search is for a definition of the Greek word sophrosyne. It’s a word that encompasses the spirit behind the famous sayings at Delphi of “Know Yourself” and “Nothing in Excess.” Translators have rendered it self-control, moderation, prudence, temperance, and discretion.

In this episode, I walk through the attempts by Socrates, Charmides, and Critias to define sophrosyne. It’s a fascinating journey that may not leave us with an exact definition, but that does get us thinking about knowledge and action.

*Quick, embarrassing note: I mistakenly refer to Charmides as Charmenides throughout the podcast episode. I didn’t realize the error until I had finished recording. Mea culpa. I got Parmenides and Charmides mixed up. Any time I say Charmenides, just think Charmides in your head.

Translations Mentioned:

• Plato Meno and Other Dialogues / Robin Waterfield / Oxford World’s Classics

• Plato Complete Works / Rosamond Kent Sprague / Hackett

• Plato Collected Dialogues / Benjamin Jowett / Princeton University Press

In 2018, part of my working life combined with this reading project. My wife and I were new to town and were perusing the shelves at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin, TN. We were crouched down, looking at the bottom row of a set of shelves when the owner, Joel Tomlin, came up and asked us where we were from. We got to talking and my wife put in a plug for my work. She told Joel that I could build an e-commerce website if the store was in need of one.

It turns out they were and that started what has now been 8 years of work with Landmark Booksellers. I am now the business manager, handling technology, finances, and business direction. Landmark has a fabulous team of literature lovers and owners who have created a true “booklover’s paradise.”

My time at Landmark has given me a lot of hope for the future of bookstores. I’ve seen a deep hunger for the classics and a community come together around book events. We sell our fair share of new books, but our customers come from all around the world and oftentimes leave with the best works from the past. Reading is alive and well.

I hope this trend continues into the age of AI. I actually think that as AI becomes more deeply integrated into different parts of our lives, that there will be a reaction against the artificial and a move towards the real. People will gravitate to physical, tangible books they know for certain were not written or even edited by AI.

Here are some of the AI-proof sections at Landmark:

The Great Wall

In 2024, we introduced The Great Wall at Landmark Booksellers. It’s a collection of the Great Books presented in chronological order on four, well-lit bookshelves. It’s become a hit at the store. It’s truly an amazing thing to look at a set of books and see how ideas have spread over time. It’s the only bookstore I know of with this type of a curated presentation. We’re essentially using the list of authors and books I’m working my way through over the next 40 years for this reading project.

Last week, wrote about a frustrating trip to Barnes & Noble highlighting the difficulty of finding some of the Great Books in the popular bookstore chain. They were strewn about the store in a way that would have been difficult for someone not knowing that Homer would be under Poetry, Frankenstein under Horror, and Plato under Philosophy.

We make it easy at Landmark. The best books written by humankind are in one spot and in chronological order.

The Inklings Section

When I found out that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien had been friends at Oxford, I wanted to study at that magical place. As I learned more, I discovered that Lewis and Tolkien were part of a larger group of authors who regularly met and encouraged each other’s work. Many of those authors had been inspired by an earlier Scottish writer, George MacDonald. They called themselves The Inklings and George MacDonald was the Father of the Inklings.

We’ve collected many of these authors together in our Inklings section of the store. This section is naturally flanked by Mythellaneous, Rabbit Room books, and Wendell Berry. Our visitors love seeing these authors who so deeply influenced one another in one section.

The Office

Landmark is owned by Joel & Carol Tomlin. They started the bookstore in 2005 out of a love for books and desire to work a business together. Joel has collected rare books that reside in this beautiful office. Many of our author events take place here where the author sits in the big leather chair and meets & greets attendees. The office takes people back a few hundred years.

A Note on Curation

When you enter a bookstore, do you usually know what you are looking for or are you hoping for a little bit of help? One surprise at Landmark has been the importance of our booksellers in guiding shoppers to the right books. I receive an email every single time someone purchases a book from the bookstore. I love looking through those orders and I can usually determine who is working at the time based upon what people are buying. Customers really appreciate book suggestions and act on them.

My wife and I will sometimes sit down to watch a movie only to wind up not being able to decide on a film. It’s like we need a curator to guide us to the correct movie amidst the insane abundance of choice. A good bookstore does that through curation and recommendations. It does it through hiring knowledgeable bookworms.

I find it very interesting that our Nashville Amazon bookstore closed down a few years ago. That bookstore was optimized to the T. They had all the data. They knew that people who bought book A would also buy book B, so they placed those books together. They knew which books were selling and which ones weren’t. But there was no warmth. There was no personality. It felt like walking into a warehouse. The staff member didn’t even bother to say hi. The optimized bookstore eventually closed down.

I have high hopes for bookstores moving forward. We are storytelling and story-loving people. That will not go away. And while an iPhone can be an absolutely all encompassing device that consumes hours of attention a day, there’s nothing that can replace the pure joy of having your imagination ignited while reading a physical book.

Visit your local bookstore. There are good things in store. Literally.

Landmark Booksellers | 114 East Main Street, Franklin, TN 37064

I’m closing out my biweekly summer podcast schedule with an episode about my top 5 favorite Loeb Classical Library books. Do you need these if you don’t read Greek or Latin? Why collect these when there are plenty of alternatives? I address these questions and show you my top 5 (with 2 bonus books at the end) in this video podcast recorded in the Books of Titans Library.

As part of this reading project, I decided to read all of Plato’s dialogues. In Plato: Complete Works, edited by John M. Cooper, there are 45 distinct dialogues and other works. So far, I’ve read 21 of those 45.

I came into this Plato Project with almost no previous exposure to Plato. I was coming in blind. I quickly realized that Plato was continually referencing earlier philosophers. I actually stopped reading Plato last year to read those early Greek philosophers before returning to Plato again this year. That ended up helping tremendously.

In this article, I’d like to share some observations from my time with Plato. These have helped me to better understand the purpose of the dialogues and how they are structured.

Philosophy is Personal

When I think of philosophy, I think of ideas. It’s quite startling to realize that the majority of Plato’s dialogues are named after a person, not an idea. Here are some examples of titles placed into different buckets:

• Early Greek Philosophers - Parmenides, Protagoras, Gorgias (8 total dialogues)

• Contemporaries of Socrates - Charmides, Alcibiades, Phaedo (20 total dialogues)

• Themes or Ideas - Apology, Statesman, Laws (+/- 14 dialogues)

• Others - Hipparchus, Sisyphus, Minos (3 dialogues)

That means that just a little under 30 dialogues are named after a person. These were not random choices. They are the starting point of each dialogue. Plato chose each philosopher, friend, or contemporary on purpose and it’s important to try to get to know about these people before approaching the dialogues.

There’s another aspect of the personal nature of the dialogues. Plato teaches philosophy through discussion. These are not one-way lectures. They are two-way (or more) conversations. Philosophy doesn’t occur alone; it’s always in dialogue.

Aporia

I just learned about this term in Robin Waterfield’s introduction to Charmides, Laches, Lysis, and Meno. I posted about it last week and had some helpful responses from other readers on what aporia means. I wanted to share them here:

Plato’s dialogues typically end in aporia. They leave the person in the dialogue in a state of confusion or in a state where they realize they know less about a given topic or idea than they thought they knew going into it. It has the same effect on the reader.

Waterfield suggests that Socrates believed “aporia was good for the soul.”

The Elenchus: Method of Inquiry

The elenchus is another term I picked up from Robin Waterfield. It means testing or challenge and it is the method of inquiry used by Socrates. The questions Plato places in the mouth of Socrates are meant to test and challenge the person to see if they truly understand what they believe.

In my first corporate job, I remember attending a meeting where one of the executives asked painfully basic questions. These were questions that interns would have been embarrassed to ask, and yet in asking them, this executive exposed the fact that very few people in the room could actually articulate answers to these most basic of questions about the business. By appearing unintelligent, he addressed and exposed ideas we all needed to understand.

Through Plato, we see a variety of people challenged in their knowledge, oftentimes of basic ideas. This elenchus is what leads to aporia.

Definitions

Something else that Waterfield points out in his introduction is that people didn’t have nice Oxford dictionaries sitting around in Ancient Greece. Part of Plato’s purpose was to determine definitions for key terms and ideas to establish a standard from which to base discussions. Many of the questions Plato has Socrates ask are there to establish a definition both broad enough and limited enough to encompass the essence of the idea.

Remembering Plato

One of my foremost goals for this reading project is to remember what I read. The items listed above provide some keys to assisting in remembering Plato. We tend to remember stories more than lectures. Since many of these dialogues are named after a person, that provides an excellent starting point for recollection. Who is the person named and what was the topic in which Socrates set the elenchus?

From there, how does the elenchus lead to aporia in that particular dialogue? One thing I do to assist with my disobedient memory is to set aside a page in my yearly Everything Notebook to list out the Plato Dialogues I’ve read and the main idea or question by which to remember them by:

What I need to begin doing is to also list both the idea and the person. Each dialogue has a main dialogue partner or partners. Plato chose each of these people for a reason.

Start with the person and that may help you remember the idea from the dialogue.

Reading Order

I’m reading the dialogues in the following order, as presented in Plato: Complete Works by J.M. Cooper. I’ve bolded the dialogues I’ve read and have italicized the ones I have yet to read.

1. Euthyphro

2. Apology

3. Crito

4. Phaedo

5. Cratylus

6. Theaetetus

7. Sophist

8. Statesman

9. Parmenides

10. Philebus

11. Symposium

12. Phaedrus

13. Alcibiades

14. Second Alcibiades

15. Hipparchus

16. Rival Lovers

17. Theages

18. Charmides

19. Laches

20. Lysis

21. Euthydemus

22. Protagoras

23. Gorgias

24. Meno

25. Greater Hippias

26. Lesser Hippias

27. Ion

28. Menexenus

29. Clitophon

30. Republic

31. Timaeus

32. Critias

33. Minos

34. Laws

35. Epinomis

36. Letters

37. Definitions

38. On Justice

39. On Virtue

40. Demodocus

41. Sisyphus

42. Halcyon

43. Eryxias

44. Axiochus

45. Epigrams

I was having lunch with a friend last week and the discussion turned to AI. He said that the direction of AI is that of optimization. Websites, driving, and experiences are being optimized. In my own line of work in digital advisory, I experience this striving on a daily basis. One of the services I offer hints at that very direction - search engine optimization.

A lot of good will come from optimization. It will save lives, improve personal technologies, and generate desired outcomes quicker. But part of optimization is getting rid of the imperfections. It’s removing the slow in favor of the fast. It’s the banishment of the human element for a more efficient technological solution. Optimization will present a form of beauty stripped of the real.

Our lives are about to become more and more inundated with AI. It will become embedded in everyday technology to where it will be hard to distinguish its use from non-use. We’re running into this issue at Landmark Booksellers where our current rule is not to accept any new book submission containing content generated by AI. It’s easy to spot AI slop when the book illustrations contain people with 6 fingers, but it will get harder and harder to draw the line going forward. A simple Google search for research generates an AI response. Does that count?

I’d like to propose that as our work lives and personal technology become more and more imbued with AI, that we respond by cultivating an area of our lives free from AI. What if you viewed your reading life as that bulwark against optimization? As a part of your life that you purposefully kept free from any use of AI? What would that look like?

First, there would be a focus on the physical and the tangible. While everything becomes digitized, you double down on physical books. You pick the local, in-person reading group over the online one. When you have a question about what you are reading, you either read more or ask a friend before consulting ChatGPT. When your book report comes due, you eschew AI research to think and write on your own.

Second, you create a no-technology zone around your reading life. Your phone is in another room while you read. If you use a tablet for your books, you set parameters around notifications and distractions during your reading time. You remove the constant bombardment of notifications.

Third, you take things slowly. You re-read when you don’t understand. You read other viewpoints on the same topic. You focus your attention on the best of what humankind has written throughout the ages. You don’t speed-read to just obtain the top takeaways and then quickly move on. You dwell.

As everything around you becomes more and more optimized, make a practice of carving out a non-optimized area of your life. A reading project is a good antidote to the onslaught of these new technological tools. I like the tools and use them daily in my work life. But in doing so, I don’t want to lose the human connection, the imperfections, and the deep thinking that make life beautiful.

The famous inscription a the Temple of Apollo at Delphi encourages the visitor to “Know Thyself.” Plato’s dialogue Alcibiades is an exploration of that inscription. What does it mean to know oneself? And how does Socrates lead the powerful Alcibiades in this dialogue?

In this episode, I cover Alcibiades and Second Alcibiades by Plato, two relatively short dialogues with wonderful thoughts about virtue, the soul, and the good.

July 2026 Reading

Lewis • Guite • Plato

During July, I returned to Plato after a month of King Arthur in June. I read the Phaedrus and Alcibiades dialogues. The Tripartite soul shows up in Phaedrus. I had heard about it but hadn’t yet encountered it in Plato’s works. Using the analogy of a chariot, the idea is that both gods and humans have a soul made of three parts:

• The Rational - the charioteer - thinking part

• The Spirited - the white horse - emotional part

• The Appetitive - the black horse - desiring part

The soul is a self-moving thing and is in motion, but the direction of a soul is largely dictated by the balance and reigning of the spirited and appetitive sides. I found this analogy to be very interesting and talked about it in episode 296 of the podcast:

I also obtained an advanced copy of The Coming of Arthur and thoroughly enjoyed it. There’s a reference to to Aeschylus’ Oresteia that is just sublime. I can’t wait to read the final two books in the series. You can pre-order a copy here.

The Mirror, the Mask, & the Masterpiece by Peter Kreeft was a very helpful book tied to Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. That was the book for my July Short Great Books reading group and Kreeft’s work helped in my preparation. That was the first book I’d read by Kreeft and I liked it very much.

The additional copy of Phaedrus was because I read it twice, first in the Complete Works and then second in that Oxford World’s Classics version translated by Robin Waterfield.

August 2026 Reading Plan

Melville • Plato

I’m currently reading Billy Budd by Herman Melville in preparation for the August Short Great Books reading group. After that, my August focus will be on Plato. Here are the dialogues I have coming up:

• Second Alcibiades

• Hipparchus

• Rival Lovers

• Theages

• Charmides

My plan is to read through all of Plato’s dialogues by the end of November. I’ve currently read 13 of them and have 20+ to go.

Recently Acquired

July Book Purchases

I reigned in my book purchases in July. Here are the five I purchased from top to bottom:

• Phaedrus / Plato (Robin Waterfield translation) - wanted to read a second translation and another introduction

• Billy Budd / Herman Melville - purchased a second copy (my other is the Penguin Classics) for the purpose of reading the introduction. I’m reading Billy Budd twice in preparation of my reading group

• Ginkgo / Peter Crane - I’m quietly building my arsenal of books about trees that I’ll be reading during December of this year. My absolute most favoritest tree in all the world is the Ginkgo tree, so I can’t wait to read this one.

• Revolution & Bonhoeffer / Eric Metaxas - we had an event with Eric Metaxas at Landmark Booksellers this past month and so I got signed and personalized copies of these two books.

I set aside one post per month to highlight my reading life. Books of Titans is a reading project aimed at seeking the ancient paths by reading The Great Books by 200 Authors chronologically over the next 40 years. Thank you for following my journey.

What comes to your mind when you think about studying philosophy? I’m immediately taken back to the fall of 1999 and my Intro to Philosophy (Phil 1000) course at the University of Georgia. I was way out of my league. I couldn’t even keep up with an introductory course. I somehow earned a B grade but left frustrated at my inability to understand what I was reading. I did not continue on to Phil 2000.

I carried that frustration and a healthy bit of fear into this reading project when I started reading Plato last year. I struggle with his dialogues. I require multiple readings just to grasp the main ideas. Plato’s Parmenides dialogue nearly broke my brain.

Perhaps I’m not doing philosophy the right way. There’s something that has stood out in Plato’s works. Part of it is explicit and the other part is the nature of dialogues. The explicit part is that Plato has Socrates state that philosophy is best done person to person. The nature of the dialogues show philosophy occurring between people.

That may seem like a fairly inane observation, but my assumption going into this was that philosophy was best done individually in front of a book. That the true philosopher was alone, turning ideas in his or her head. That may be part of it, but Plato’s ideal certainly does not look like that. And it also doesn’t look like a teacher in front of a 40-student Phil 1000 course.

There’s an interesting story that Plato has Socrates tell in the Phaedrus dialogue about the Egyptian god Theuth talking to Thamous, the king of Egypt. Theuth is known as the inventor of “number, arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy, of games involving draughts and dice—and especially of writing.” Thamous surprises Theuth by saying that his invention of writing will “atrophy people’s memories.”

He goes on to say:

Many critics have pointed out that Plato has Socrates relay this story in a written dialogue. Ironic, yes. But he continues:

Written words don’t have the organic nature of a conversation. They can’t explain. They can’t answer. The original Greek of Plato’s dialogues has not changed in the past 2,400 years. The lone philosopher in front of a book is missing something.

Over the past year, I’d estimate my time breakdown as 99% reading Plato and 1% discussing Plato with others. That’s not Plato’s ideal. Perhaps the better approach would be to spend more of that time in conversation about these dialogues, preferably with a teacher.

I wish I would have given Phil 1000 more of my attention during college when I could have spoken with the professor. I’m doing this Great Books project outside of a university or group. I’m doing it alone. And as I’m reading Plato alone, he keeps telling me to do it with others.

What is love and what does it have to do with the immortal soul? These are some of the questions addressed in the wide-ranging Phaedrus dialogue by Plato. Similar to other Plato dialogues, this one contains a myth. Perhaps you have heard of the Tripartite Soul. This is one of the dialogues that introduces that idea and it is found within the Myth of the Winged Soul.

In this episode, I talk about how Plato used this myth to talk about ideas like love, desire, immortality, education, and the soul. I then tie that together with a major theme of this reading project, direction. I close out with a, how should I say this, interesting 😬 definition of love from Plato.

Show Notes:

A certain film has been making recent headlines and has sparked a fresh interest in Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey. In 1929, Alfred North Whitehead said “the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists in a series of footnotes to Plato.” While that is likely the case in the philosophical tradition, the western literary tradition is a direct descendant of Homer.

If you’ve never read Homer, where should you start?

In September 2023, I began reading The Iliad for the very first time in my life. It was chronologically the next book on my Great Books reading list and it coincided with a Catherine Project reading group where we read The Iliad and The Odyssey over Zoom.

Reading Homer was one of those experiences where I left sensing I had been changed. There was an Erik before Homer and there was a different Erik after Homer. The Iliad immediately became my favorite book and the best way I know how to describe it is to say that it contains everything. I see traces of Homer in nearly everything I’ve read since then.

I had done some preparation before arriving at Homer. I had read Hesiod and Edith Hamilton to gain some exposure to the world of Greek Mythology. I was coming in fresh and I wanted to have some familiarity with the Greek world.

If I could go back in time to September 2023, would I have approached Homer differently? Perhaps.

My Recommendation

Start with Homer. Yes, you will likely miss many of the mythological references and the layers they add to the understanding of the epic, but it will be an introduction that leaves you wanting more. As you encounter the myths in Homer and then in the Greek Tragedies, you’ll be collecting your own experiences of them across literature.

I liken it to studying business at college, something I did at the undergraduate and graduate levels. You can study business all day long, but there is no comparison to diving in and learning on the job. You may know the correct terms for business-speech by studying it in college, but you’ll better understand business itself by immersing yourself in it.

And with Homer, start with The Iliad. Although The Odyssey is popular at the moment, it’s important to know the context of Odysseus’ return, and you’ll find that in The Iliad.

Sources for Mythology

If you’d rather approach Homer with some mythology knowledge under your belt, here are some places where you can start:

Mythology by Edith Hamilton

I keep this book in close proximity as it is one of the most helpful guidebooks to Greek Mythology. Many of the sources I’ll be mentioning below contain portions of the myths. What Edith Hamilton has done is to combine the stories from all of the sources to present a more cohesive storyline. Sometimes these myths come to us from just one obscure ancient work. This collection helps consolidate all of those stories in one place and is an invaluable reference guide as you read works for Ancient Greece.

Theogony by Hesiod

Hesiod was a contemporary or near contemporary of Homer and his Theogony is about the genealogy of the gods. Parentage is of extreme importance in Greek mythology as children take on the attributes of their parents.

The Homeric Hymns

Attributed to Homer but more likely composed by the Homeridae (children / students of Homer), this work contains a series of hymns about the major Greek gods. The stories are wonderful and I really enjoyed reading this collection.

Greek Epic Fragments

This is one of the most important books to read alongside Homer. The Iliad and The Odyssey are just 2 of 8 total works making up the Trojan Epic Cycle. The other 6 works have been lost to us (it’s also unlikely Homer wrote down the other 6). However, they provide the whole story and fill in gaps we’re used to seeing in these epics. For example, the Trojan Horse, the abduction of Helen, and the death of Achilles do not show up except by reference in either The Iliad or The Odyssey. Instead, they were in other works that fit outside those two works. The book gives summaries of the 6 works that were lost, filling out the entire storyline.

Other Works:

• Ovid’s Metamorphoses

• Apollodorus’ The Library of Greek Mythology

Some thoughts on the reading life:

• It’s not as much from discipline as from purpose. Why are you reading? Does it bring you delight, are you longing for something, or are you seeking after truth? Purpose entices you to read. Discipline pushes.

• I rarely meet a great reader who has hours of uninterrupted reading time. Instead, I meet those busy with the ordinary duties of life. Their reading time accrues through minutes here and there, not from long spells of reading. They are usually always carrying a book.

• Reading requires sacrifice, though usually what is given up is not missed. Those who question how someone can read so much are usually the same people who have several tv show seasons under their belts. You can either watch or read. Choose wisely.

• A reading goal can work wonders. Pick a timeframe and a desired reading list. Write those books down in order and include the number of pages. Add the pages together and divide by the number of days in your timeframe. That’s how many pages to read per day. That’s the best way to make a big book (or a big reading project) less intimidating.

• Wake up while the house is quiet. Reading at night induces sleep. Reading in the morning (with coffee, of course) is a great time to read.

• Identity and purpose work together. If you are a seeker of truth, you will seek after truth in the books you read. “I’m not well-read” or “I’m not really a reader” are ideas to remove from your thoughts. You are a reader. You are a seeker. Go and practice your craft.

• Reading is a habit. It’s a delightful, wonderful habit, but a daily practice nonetheless.

I obsessively track my reading, counting books, pages, and time. When looking back, I’m continually amazed at how those words, paragraphs, and pages accumulate over the years. Someone well-read, read well over time. However, they are unlikely to consider themselves well-read because the more they read, the more they realize how much remains to be read. It’s the quest that lasts a lifetime, and likely beyond.

2026 has been a fun year of reading so far. I’ve read the Bible, a few Plato dialogues, legends of King Arthur, and others. Here’s my mid-year reading review. It’s a great way to learn about books you may want to add to your own reading list. I go through the 20+ books I’re read so far for this year and a little about each one of them. Enjoy!

Reading List (Jan - June 2026)

• The Intertextual Tanakh

• Bibliotheca Vol II: The Latter Prophets

• Bibliotheca Vol III: The Writings

• Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell

• Bibliotheca Vol V: The New Testament

• Our Name is Dare by Kev Coleman

• Heraclitus Fragments

• The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists

• Early Greek Philosophy

• The Logos of Heraclitus by Eva Brann

• Nero & Paul by Kathie Lee Gifford w/ Brian M. Litfin

• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

• The Greek Sophists

• The Flowering Hawthorn by Hugh Ross Williamson

• Plato: Complete Works by Plato

• Philebus Plato

• Le Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory

• Galahad and the Grail by Malcolm Guite

• King Arthur and His Knights of The Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green

• The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien

• Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

• The Mirror, the Mask, and the Masterpiece: A Guide to C. S. Lewis’s “Till We Have Faces” by Peter Kreeft

While The Odyssey is about to hit movie theaters around the world, in Ancient Greece, rhapsodes would travel and perform recitations of Homer’s epic poems to large audiences. Rhapsodes were a mix of actor and lecturer. They wouldn’t just perform the epics but would also explain what the poets meant in their stories. Whether they did the explaining through their acting or through side speeches is unclear.

In Plato’s dialogue titled Ion, we meet the rhapsode named Ion. Socrates approaches Ion to ask him about his profession and to tease out his specific skill set. A rhapsode is competition for the philosopher. Ion, in passing down the epics of the past, is also passing down traditional views of the gods and morality. Socrates wants to influence the morality of the populace through reasoned argument, not through the emotions. In The Republic, Plato actually wishes to banish such imitative poets from his ideal city for their negative, diversionary influence.

This dialogue beings with Ion having just won first prize in a poetry contest. He has brought tears and laughter to 20,000 audience members and has won the accolades of the masses. We learn quickly that Ion has a singular focus on Homer and cares nothing for other poets. Socrates uses this as a way to examine the skills that Ion possesses.

Socrates (Plato’s mouthpiece) uses a particular manner of examination in this dialogue. We see him use it elsewhere and it’s a process derived from the early Greek philosophers, who were attempting to find the First Principle, the archē of things (for example, Democritus’ first principle(s) were atoms and void). In the Plato dialogues Statesman and Sophist, Socrates uses a method of definition through division. Socrates is seeking the core elements, the first principles of those professions. He’s atomizing the concepts to reach the root.

We see him employing a similar tactic in Ion. He’s conducting a proxy war of sorts against Homer through his “acting” agent Ion. So, while Socrates is questioning Ion specifically and the profession of the rhapsode more generally, his ultimate target is Homer. If he can show that the rhapsode is not skilled, he can draw a line back to Homer and show how philosophy is the better way.

Socrates references a series of episodes from the Iliad and the Odyssey and asks Ion who would be more skilled to talk about things like charioteering and divination, him or an expert. Ion admits that an expert would be more skilled.

This is where the dialogue becomes tricky. If a rhapsode is explaining the epic through dramatization, Socrates’ series of questions are absurd. Can you imagine Ion stopping in the middle of a scene to call in the expert charioteer to lecture on the intricacies of horses? It would destroy the show. The majority of the 20,000 attendees would get up from their seats and leave.

Ion gets tricked in this dialogue. Socrates actually makes him look absurd and unskilled through definition by division. There are two instances where Socrates asks Ion point blank what skills he has over and above the experts in the field. In both cases, Ion responds by saying “in everything.” This was not the answer Socrates was expecting.

I think Ion was right. He was more skilled in Homer as a whole. He should have responded to Socrates by reciting the episode of Priam kissing the hand of the man who killed his son from the Iliad. He should have then asked Socrates the question, who judges this better, the rhapsode or the expert in kissing hands? The rhapsode or the anger management counselor? The rhapsode or the parent who has lost a child?

Ion was right because you can’t atomize the arts. You can’t break Homer down into small pieces and determine if he was as correct as an expert about a given topic. “The play’s the thing…” as Shakespeare stated through Hamlet. You don’t combat Homer by breaking him down. You combat Homer by telling better stories. Ion was correct - he was better at understanding and portraying the epic that has lasted 2,500+ years.

Plato knew this. He was a tragedy playwright himself (the story goes that he burned them all upon meeting Socrates). He utilized dialogues and myths to tell what he considered to be better stories. While it seems as though Ion is the absurd man in this dialogue (and he does say some absurd things), I actually think Plato presents Socrates as the absurd one for his line of questioning. Ion’s double response of “everything” exposes a deep insight about the arts.

Plato also uses this dialogue to explore the origin of these arts. Do they arrive through the skill of the artist, through the possession of the poet by a god, or through some middle ground of divine inspiration?

When I talk to artists, I rarely hear them say that the song, painting, or poem came through their own skill. They are skilled at what they do, but that’s not the origin. And I’ve never heard someone say they were completely out of control and possessed during the creation process. Nearly every time, I hear the artist admit that the work of art flowed through them in a way that they can’t fully explain. They were in control but something outside of their control happened in the process.

How do you atomize a work of art like that? How do you atomize Homer? You can’t. Ion was right.

June 2026 Reading

King Arthur • Lewis • Plato

I usually take a break from The Great Books during July, but I bumped my break up a month to read about the Legends of King Arthur. I did this because I was asked if I would be interested in interviewing Malcolm Guite about the first of four volumes of his epic Arthuriad, Galahad and the Grail. As a general rule, I try not to turn down opportunities to speak with epic poets, so I spent the beginning of June prepping for that episode, which you can watch here.

I am an Arthurian newbie. Until a few weeks ago, I lacked the most basic parts of the storyline. Here’s what I read this past month:

• I started with Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur to get my feet wet. I read the first 50+ pages about Arthur and then skipped to the parts dealing with Galahad. I did not read this entire book but just portions of it.

• Next, I read Galahad and the Grail in preparation for my conversation with Malcolm. I was amazed. It truly feels like we’re witnessing the release of an epic poem that will be around for generations. I loved this and the poetry would ring in my head after reading.

• Then, I read Roger Lancelyn Green’s King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table. This is written for young adults and was very helpful in getting a relatively quick overview of the main stories of the legend of King Arthur. The Malory edition can be a bit long-winded and contradictory, but Green does a wonderful job of consolidation. He was also a friend of C.S. Lewis.

• I closed out my Arthurian Month with The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien. This is an unfinished poem and was neat to see Tolkien’s interaction with the legend. His son wrote a very helpful and informative afterward. I recommend this to Arthur fans.

After Arthur, I read Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. This is the July book for the Short Great Books reading group I lead in Franklin, TN. I’m going to be reading it one more time before the July 6th meeting. I’m still processing the first read-through.

After Lewis, I dove back into Plato as I prepare for a podcast conversation I will be having later this week about the Ion dialogue. This is a short dialogue dealing with artistic inspiration. Here are the books I’ve been consulting for this deep dive:

• Plato: Complete Works - I usually start here with Plato’s dialogues to do a read-through for the overall picture. This version of Ion was translated by Paul Woodruff.

• Plato: Early Socratic Dialogues - Intro to & Translation of Ion by Trevor Saunders

• Plato: On Poetry - Intro to Ion by Penelope Murray (not pictured)

• Ion - translation by Allan Bloom

• An Interpretation of Plato’s Ion - by Allan Bloom - an article that has been very helpful in thinking about Ion.

• Classical Literary Criticism - Intro and Translation by Penelope Murray - I enjoyed this introduction.

By the time the podcast conversation occurs this Thursday, I’ll have read Ion at least 5 times. Some of these Great Books take me a long time to understand, but it’s been fun to see my understanding increase with each subsequent reading.

One quick note to close out June - I read the full books of about half of those listed above. For the others, I read small portions for intros or different translations, or I’m working my way through the entire work (as in the case of Plato’s Complete Works).

July 2026 Reading Plan

Back to the Great Books

From July - November, I’ll be reading the dialogues of Plato. I’ve read about a third of them so far and am going to attempt to finish all of them by the end of the year. That will include a deep dive at some point into The Republic. I’ll want to read that one at least two times, maybe more.

Podcast Episodes

I filmed two delightful podcast episodes during June around the Galahad and the Grail epic poem:

I first interviewed the author and poet, Malcolm Guite. We talked about the Arthurian threads back to Ancient Greece, his collaboration with illustrator Stephen Crotts, and the theme of unveiling.

After that, I interviewed the illustrator of Galahad and the Grail, Stephen Crotts. I asked Stephen about his design process, how he got into the Arthur stories, and how we should approach his artwork.

Recently Acquired

June Book Purchases

My book buying is out of hand. These books fall into a few main buckets:

• King Arthur - I really got into the Legends of King Arthur this past month and books would keep pointing to other books that I wanted to explore. The Apocryphal Gospels (particularly, the Gospel of Nicodemus) relates to Arthur as well.

• Till We Have Faces - I’m leading a discussion on this book next week and want to be well-prepared, so I purchased some books for that purpose. The story is based upon the Cupid & Psyche myth found in Apuleius’ Golden Ass, the reason for that purchase.

• Plato - I want to understand the Ion dialogue well before I discuss it this week on a podcast.

• Others:

  • I rearranged my shelves this past month and bought some books to fill in some Great Books gaps that I have coming up (Tao Te Ching, Sun Tzu, and Zhuāngzǐ.

  • The Yearling - I saw Andrew Peterson in concert and he talked about this book for quite a while. It really impacted him, so I bought it for the future.

  • The Hidden Life of Trees - I’m going to spend December reading about trees, so I’m building my arsenal.

Bookish Adventures

Here’s some book-related fun I had during June:

1. Each year, thriller writer Brad Thor signs and personalizes his latest book for our customers at Landmark Booksellers. It’s a joy to get to speak to him each year as he signs books.

2. My office/study mid-shelf rearrangement.

3. An event at Landmark Booksellers with Former United States Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander.

4. Catching an Andrew Peterson concert at the Ryman where his backdrop was shelves of books.

5. In-person interview with Stephen Crotts, illustrator of Galahad and the Grail.

6. An event with Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman at Landmark Booksellers. I have listened to his music for many years, so it was neat to get to meet him.

I set aside one post per month to highlight my reading life. Books of Titans is a reading project aimed at seeking the ancient paths by reading The Great Books by 200 Authors chronologically over the next 40 years. Thank you for following my journey.

This is my Arthurian Month where I’ve been getting to know the Legends of King Arthur through the works of Sir Thomas Malory, Roger Lancelyn Green, and Malcolm Guite.

In this episode, recorded at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin, TN, I ask Stephen about his design process, how he got into the Arthur stories, and how we should approach his artwork. He also shares a few illustrations from the second book in the series that releases later this year.

I’ve gotten to know Stephen over the past few years. He’s helped me to see how illustrators can reveal parts of the story that authors cannot. When done right, authors and illustrators can create more than the sum of their individual contributions. The two can inform each other and help the reader see and understand in unexpected ways.

Two years ago, as Stephen was preparing for this Arthuriad project, we happened to be in London at the same time and toured the British Museum together. After perusing the Egyptian and Babylonian sections, we looked at the artifacts that bridged the gap between Pagan and Christian Britain, around the time of when the Arthur stories were said to have taken place (400’s AD). Stephen was there for inspiration for that timeframe.

Show Notes:

• Stephen Crotts

• Purchase a copy of Galahad and the Grail from Landmark Booksellers

• Free Reader’s Kit

• Malcolm Guite

• Rabbit Room Publishers

• Landmark Booksellers | Recording Location

• Merlin’s Isle Trailer -

Last week, I wrote about how the Matter of Britain intersects with a number of the Great Books. Certain tales inspire the greatest minds. It’s helpful to know these stories to better appreciate the books that tap into these legends.

With that in mind, this article highlights the works that have told the Legends of King Arthur. As Malcolm Guite highlighted in the last podcast episode, there is not an authoritative work marking the origin of the Arthurian Legends. Instead, there are a number of works that have captured the tale over time.

The History of the Kings of Britain (1136 AD)

Geoffrey of Monmouth

It all started in Troy. While Aeneas was fleeing a Troy in flames and making his way to Italy, Brutus, another Trojan, was doing the same, making his way to Albion (Britain) to found New Troy, what we know today as London. From these lofty beginnings, this book chronicles the kings and legendary figures of Britain. You may have heard of some of them - King Lear, Merlin, and King Arthur.

Roman de Brut (1155)

Wace

Wace took Monmouth’s History that was written in Latin prose and adapted it to Old French poetry. He also added to the story and introduced the Round Table for the first time.

Here are some other important early works:

• Arthurian Romances by Chrétien de Troyes (1170 to 1191 AD) - introduced Lancelot, Percival, the Holy Grail, and Lancelot’s affair

• Brut by Layamon (1200 AD) - the first English retelling

• The Vulgate Cycle by Robert de Boron (1200 AD) - tied the Holy Grail to Joseph of Arimathea

The Flowering Hawthorn (1962)

Hugh Ross Williamson

I’m jumping ahead to this story as it connects Joseph of Arimathea to Glastonbury, where Arthur was buried. This story recounts how Jesus gave Joseph of Arimathea the Holy Grail (the cup from the last supper), the platter from the last supper, and the spear that pierced Jesus’ side on the cross. The Flowering Hawthorn is a staff that Joseph thrust into the ground on Wearyall Hill near Glastonbury Tor. The legend is that the staff flowers each Christmas (January 6th on the old calendar) in England.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Late 1300s)

Anonymous / J.R.R. Tolkien (Translation)

This poem survived in a single document and recounts the story of a large Green Knight and one of the Knights of the Round Table, Sir Gawain.

Le Morte Darthur (1470)

Sir Thomas Malory

This is one of the most famous prose collections of the Legends of Arthur. Sir Thomas Malory used French and English material to compose this work. It is mainly divided into different adventures that tell the stories of the Knights of the Round Table and the kingdom of Arthur.

Idylls of the King (1859)

Lord Tennyson

Tennyson revived the Arthurian Legends by composing a Victorian retelling within twelve narrative poems of blank verse.

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)

Mark Twain

The story of an American Hank Morgan who winds up in 6th century England.

King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table (1953)

Roger Lancelyn Green

A friend of C.S. Lewis, Roger Lancelyn Green took the long and sometimes contradictory stories from Malory and compiled them into a version perfect for first-timers or children.

Some other works:

• The Once and Future King by T.H. White’s (1958)

• The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck (unfinished)

That Hideous Strength (1945)

C.S. Lewis

A story, the third of a trilogy, that is heavily steeped in the Arthurian legend.

Galahad and the Grail (2026)

Malcolm Guite (illustrated by Stephen Crotts)

The first of a total four volume Epic Poem called The Arthuriad by poet Malcolm Guite. This fresh telling of the Arthurian legend is composed in ballad form that creates a pleasant aftertaste in your mind. I spoke with Malcolm about this work in a recent podcast episode.

The Inklings and King Arthur (2017)

Edited by Sørina Higgins

This is a look at the interactions between The Inklings (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Owen Barfield, and others) with the legends of Arthur.

Where Should You Start?

If you are completely new to the Arthur Legends, I recommend starting with Roger Lancelyn Green’s King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table. It’s a short and easy to understand review of the main stories. That provides an excellent foundation to approach any of the other works listed above.

In my conversation last week with Malcolm Guite, he identified three subject matters the medieval poets considered worthy of epic poetry:

1. The Matter of Troy

2. The Matter of Gaul

3. The Matter of Britain

I’ve dedicated my reading for June 2026 to The Matter of Britain, which consists of the legends of King Arthur. Except through brief encounters through movies, this is my first foray into these tales. I’ve been learning about Arthur through Sir Thomas Malory, Roger Lancelyn Green, and Malcolm Guite.

I’ve had an epiphany these past two weeks as I’ve been enjoying the tales of Arthur. I’m currently reading through The Great Books. I never realized how many of these classic works make use of The Matters as their subject matter.

For example, the tales of Arthur are taken up in the following works and by these authors from my Immortal Authors reading list:

• The Mabinogion (#67) — the earliest Welsh Arthurian tales

• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (#82) — the finest Middle English Arthurian romance

• Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene (#98) — Prince Arthur as questing hero

• Alfred Tennyson, Idylls of the King (#162) — the Victorian retelling of the whole cycle

• Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (#168) — the satirical inversion

Additionally, many of The Inklings, including C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and Owen Barfield, wove these tales throughout their works. Lewis drew on the Arthur theme in That Hideous Strength, and Tolkien translated Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and embarked upon The Fall of Arthur.

As Malcolm Guite pointed out last week, there is no authorized version of the tales of King Arthur. There’s no definitive account on my list of Great Books. Geoffrey Monmouth, Chrétien de Troyes, Robert de Boron, and Sir Thomas Malory collected the tales through their works over the ages, but there’s not one original Arthuriad source we can point to. Like Homer, they took the oral tradition and set it to writing.

My epiphany is that these Matters intersect many of the Great Books and it’s important to have a proper familiarity with these stories.

The Matter of Troy permeates the Great Books. There are two main lines, two epic cycles from which Homer’s epic poems, the Greek Tragedians, and later authors pull from. These are the Theban and Trojan epic cycles. The Iliad and the Odyssey are part of the Trojan epic cycle. The Aeneid is also included in the Matter of Troy as Aeneas survives and escapes from Troy to found Rome, thus connecting Troy to Rome. (There’s a neat legendary connection between Troy and London that Malcolm Guite highlights in last week’s episode).

For the Matter of Gaul (France), also known as the Carolingian cycle, these three works of heroic deeds emerged between the late 11th and early 12th centuries:

• Chanson de Guillaume

• The Song of Roland

• Gormont et Isembart

The Song of Roland is on my Great Books reading list. Later authors like Boiardo with Orlando Innamorato and Ariosto with Orlando Furioso continued the tale.

I’ve been enthralled with the tales of Arthur that I’ve been reading for the first time over these past two weeks. They’ve quickened my imagination and it’s been amazing to see how many of the world’s greatest authors were also taken in by these tales. As you read through the Great Books, make sure you incorporate these Matters and these stories into your reading. You’ll see traces in your favorite books, movies, and music.