Reading Recap: August 2024 Books & September Schedule

September 2024 will be the Month of Euripides. I'm going to try to read through all 17 of his surviving tragedy plays.

I plan to begin sharing a monthly recap where I highlight what I read the previous month and what’s coming up in the next month. Books of Titans is a reading project where I’m seeking Truth & beauty in the world’s Great Books. My goal is to read 200 of the Great Books in chronological order over the next 10 - 15 years.

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August Reading Recap

Babrius and Phaedrus Fables | July 29 - August 14

This is the O.G. version of Aesop’s Fables. Aesop existed and was a contemporary of Sappho, but we don’t have any of his actual writings. They mostly come from Babrius (Greek) and Phaedrus (Roman) 500 years+ later. They collected Aesop’s fables and added some of their own. This Loeb Classical Library edition offers a 100 page introduction, which I found to be very helpful. This version also carries some unsanitized fables that didn’t quite make it into the child-friendly Barnes & Noble edition I read earlier this year. Here’s a podcast episode I recorded about Babrius & Phaedrus:

Babrius and Phaedrus Fables (Aesop's Fables)

Jason and the Golden Fleece by Apollonius of Rhodes | August 15 - 23

Holy cow what a story. I snuck this book into my list (I’m trying to read them in chronological order of when they were written, and this was written many years down the road) because I kept seeing the story referenced in other Greek Literature. I wanted to know the story. I didn’t expect it to be absolutely thrilling. I will be covering this one on an upcoming podcast episode.

The Bookshop by Evan Friss | August 19 - 28

I’m the business manager at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin, TN (come visit, it’s a booklover’s paradise) and our owner recently purchased this book for all staff to read and discuss. I loved it. I learned a lot about the history of the bookstore in the United States and it led to a wonderful discussion with Landmark staff. Here’s a podcast episode I recorded with more info:

The Bookshop by Evan Friss

The Iliad by Homer | August 8 - ongoing

I’m currently leading a local reading group where we’re reading through The Iliad. We cover 3 books a week (of 24 total in the epic). This is my third time reading the epic in the past 12 months. It is my favorite book and facilitating the reading group is adding a fantastic new element to my understanding of this book. If you have not read the Iliad, please make a point to do so.

September Reading Plan

I had to purchase all of these editions to get all 17 of Euripides tragedy plays.

Things have gotten way out of hand. My plan was to just read a few plays by each Greek Tragedy playwright, but they are much too good to leave any out. You must start with Homer, but after you’ve finished the Iliad & Odyssey, please move on the tragedies.

Tragedies are impossible situations - damned if you do and damned if you don’t - where you usually watch a character navigate the limits of fate. But while doing so, you naturally put yourself in their position. What would you do in these impossible circumstances? These tragedies take many of the ideas Homer introduced and use myths to tell tales that make you think. They are as relevant now as they were then.

This is the last of the Greek playwrights (I read Aeschylus & Sophocles earlier this year) and I’m going to try to read all 17 surviving tragedies by Euripides (out of 92 he wrote during his lifetime). I also plan to read through fragments that we have of the ones that didn’t survive.

August Podcast Episodes

Did any of you catch my last two podcast episodes? I released them in video format, my first like that. All of my other episodes are audio only. If you did catch the video versions, what did you think? Any comments? The amount of additional work has me thinking I’m going to switch back to audio-only.

Here are the podcast episodes I released during August:

Sophocles Fragments

Electra by Sophocles

Philoctetes by Sophocles

Babrius and Phaedrus Fables (Aesop's Fables)

The Bookshop by Evan Friss

Other News

I got accepted into a Catherine Project reading group where I’ll be reading Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War and Xenophon, Hellenika. That will run from October 2024 - January 2025. If you are unfamiliar with The Catherine Project, please sign up for their newsletter to be notified of their free, online book discussions. I’ve done groups covering Homer, Aeschylus, and I & II Samuel. They have been amazing and this one on Thucydides and Xenophon will correspond almost exactly with my Great Books reading list for next month.