Reading Recap: December 2024 into January 2025
Closing out the most enjoyable reading year of my life.
I set aside one post per month to highlight my reading life. Books of Titans is a reading project aimed at seeking Truth & beauty through the world’s Immortal Books. My goal is to immerse myself in works of 200 authors, reading them in chronological order over the next 15 years. Thank you for following my journey.
December Reading Recap
I ruthlessly plan each year of reading to make sure I get through the books I absolutely want to read before I die. But I also leave two months a year open for more modern books. I like to think of the planned books as the ones that I choose. I like to think of my break months as the time where the books choose me. They might be books suggested to me by friends, ones I’ve seen mentioned multiple times, or works calling me to read them.
Theo of Golden by Allen Levi
I began December with Theo of Golden by Allen Levi. I had heard tremendous things about the book and it lived up to all the hype. I wanted to be the main character, Theo, and the book drove me to think about the good that can be done by one person a moment at a time. Here’s my podcast episode about Theo of Golden:
The Art of Teaching by Gilbert Highet
This book covered so much. It was extremely helpful and enlightening. It’s broken up into four main parts – The Teacher, The Methods, Great Teachers & Pupils, and Everyday Teaching. We’re all teachers in one way or another through parenting, employing, and instructing. It’s important to acknowledge that and then to seek ways to most properly share the information with others. This book does that by considering great teachers of history, considering good and bad students, and looking at how teaching occurs in small ways in our daily lives.
Van Gogh Has a Broken Heart by Russ Ramsey
I’ve read every single book by Russ Ramsey. He is a master storyteller. In this book, he weaves the triumphs and failures in the lives of artists into the artwork they created. But he doesn’t stop there. He brings the lessons home to us the readers by asking penetrating questions and tying artwork to deep matters of the heart. I learned about art but I also learned about myself. Exposure took place on both sides.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
A delightful story occurring in another world where ancient ideas go when no longer used in the real world. These ideas, like minotaurs, turn into statues. The main character finds himself in this other world, not quite sure how he got there, trying to rely on his journal entries, conversations with a few people, and a tainted memory. It’s a fun novel that requires close reading.
The Intellectual Life by A. G. Sertillanges
I wish I had read this book earlier in life. It answers the question – “what is all of this for?” The reading, the thinking, the life of the mind? It’s a beautiful work that gives purpose to the quest for truth and it’s a book I intend to return to often.
Shadow of Doubt by Brad Thor
I love a good thriller. Brad Thor is a friend of the bookstore where I’m business manager (Landmark Booksellers) and sells signed & personalized copies of his books with us each year. I make it a point to read each of his books so I can talk to him about them when he comes in the store.
The Great Books / The Immortal Books
I’ve always taken issue with the term “The Great Books.” The phrase doesn’t do the books justice. I hear far too many people say they’ve just read a book that’s great that is in fact, not great at all.
I’ve decided to begin calling the world’s greatest books The Immortal Books. I’m dropping The Great Books. When I refer to my reading project, I will begin saying that I’m taking the next 15 years to read through The Immortal Books written by 200 different authors.
Here’s what makes a book immortal:
It has so far stood the test of time.
It’s part of the Great Conversation of ideas. Nietzsche references the tragedy writers who reference Homer.
It has been read by people across time & cultures.
Immortal may be a bit overkill, but it does at least add gravitas to these books that “great” simply doesn’t give. I’ll be honing my list of Immortal Books written by 200 authors over the next few weeks, but for the meantime, you can check it out here:
Top 5 Books for 2024
It’s so hard for me to narrow down the books I read in 2024 to just 5, but these were definitely towards the top. The Iliad is now my favorite book of all time and I read it twice this year. But I also fell in love with nearly all of the tragedy plays I read. So much so that I decided to read every single surviving play by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. They’ve been an absolute blast.
Here are my top 5 from 2024:
The Iliad
Theo of Golden
Philoctetes by Sophocles
Medea by Euripides
The Intellectual Life
Into 2025
I start off each year reading straight through the Bible. This year, I’ll be using the King James Version designed and illustrated by Barry Moser. It’s a huge Bible and I’ll be carrying it around with my January & February as I read it. Here’s the rest of my 2025 reading list:
2025 Reading Group: Read Short Great Books
Join me for a Great Books reading group! We’ll discuss short, 2-5 hour reads in person (Franklin, TN) or online (Zoom). Details on joining, dates, and monthly books below. Our first book will be The Epic of Gilgamesh.
My Bookish Life
I had a ton of book fun in December. I got to interview the world’s foremost expert on George MacDonald for an event at Landmark Booksellers (see below). My wife, daughters, and I took a trip to NYC over Christmas and I visited 5 different bookstores. I was amazed at the sheer size of the stores. And I found some good books for my 2025 reading list. I also got to talk to Allen Levi by phone, the author of one of my top 5 books for the month. That was a lovely conversation.
In my podcast episode this Friday, I’ll go through all 42 books from my 2024 reading list and share the overarching lessons from the year. Keep an eye out for that episode.
How does one acquire a copy of the Moser bible? (Sorry if you answer this somewhere!)
Erik, really enjoyed following along your journey and look forward to more in 2025. I had a great year as well and like you I am very intentional about my process. Hoping I can stop in the store one of these days to say hi. We live near Memphis but our son goes to UT in Knoxville so we travel across the state a few times each year.