Reading Recap: May 2026
Plato • New Book Acquisitions
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 Immortal Authors chronologically over the next 40 years. Thank you for following my journey.
May 2026 Reading
Plato & Others
Here are the books I dabbled in during May. Let’s start at the bottom. I’m currently reading Plato, author #20 on my Immortal Authors reading list. In Plato: Complete Works, I read the Philebus and Symposium dialogues.
The Flowering Hawthorn is about the legend of Joseph of Arimethea arriving in England with a staff that flowered when he placed it on British soil. I covered that very interesting book in a podcast episode recorded in Oxford, England. Stephen Crotts, the illustrator of the Galahad and the Grail book, suggested this to me and it’s some prep work as I get into the Arthur legend (see below).
I picked up Sophie’s World at Landmark Booksellers as a way to review philosophy as I read it. I’ll keep this book on the reference rack and look at it as I cover each philosopher. I found the parts about the early Greek Philosophers to be very helpful, tying the idea of Atoms to Legos.
I finally finished The Greek Sophists and The First Philosophers after multiple months of reading through the Early Greek Philosophers. I did this in order to better understand Plato.
I bought Plato: Philebus at Blackwell’s at Oxford University. I always run through a dialogue for the first time in the huge Complete Works on the bottom and then will purchase a Penguin Classics or Oxford World’s Classics version for an additional read-through and helpful introductory notes.
And finally, Medea by Euripides was for the May meeting of my Short Great Books reading group. It became quite the lively discussion!
June 2026 Reading Plan
The Arthurian Month
I made a slight switch for June. I usually spend March - June reading The Great Books and then take July as a break month. My plan for this July was to then read books about Gilgamesh.
However, a few weeks ago, I was asked if I’d like to interview Malcolm Guite on the Books of Titans Podcast. I heartily agreed and am now in full-on prep mode for that interview. I moved my break month to this month, June, and will then return to The Great Books between July - November. Gilgamesh will have to wait until 2027.
I’m coming in completely fresh to the King Arthur Legend. I know next to nothing, so I’m starting with Malory’s Le Morte Darthur (The Death of Arthur). I’m currently reading that book and am skipping around to the parts that will provide the necessary background to read Malcolm Guite’s Galahad and the Grail.
Time permitting, I’ll read the Roger Lancelyn Green coverage of the Arthur legends (he was an Inkling, friends of C.S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien), the two Tolkien books, and The Lost Tales of Sir Galahad.
I’m loving this so far and I can’t believe I’ve made it this far in life without having read the Arthurian legends. Let’s go!
Recently Acquired
May Book Purchases
Ok, I know that that photo makes it look like I purchased a lot of books during May, but in reality, that’s exactly the case. Here’s why I purchased each book. Let’s start at the top on this one.
Clement of Alexandria - he wrote a lot about the early Greek philosophers and is one of the authors on my Immortal Authors list, and so this purchase was simply to build the arsenal. I purchased it at my favorite bookstore in all the world, Blackwell’s at Oxford.
King Arthur and His Knights of the Roundtable by Roger Lancelyn Green - more of a summary of Malory’s work. For my Arthurian Month.
For Art and For Life by Vincent Van Gogh - this book caught my fancy at an Oxford bookstore.
Studies in Words by C.S. Lewis - I was flipping through this first edition and saw that there was a chapter about Nature that referenced one of the early Greek philosophers, Empedocles. Had to buy it.
Le Morte Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory - for my Arthurian Month.
The Enneads by Plotinus - I purchased this in preparation for my episode on The Birth of Love. Plotinus is also one of the 200 Immortal Authors.
In Quietness & Trust by Matt Searles - my wife Stephanie had a concert with Matt Searles in the U.K. this past month and so I wanted to get his book.
God in the Dock by C.S. Lewis - I also purchased purchased this in preparation for my episode on The Birth of Love in order to look into the role of myth. I wanted this book for my library, but just bought it for the moment for the chapter called Myth Became Fact.
Tolkien Set - purchased these for my Arthurian Month (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Fall of Arthur in particular).
Liturgies of the Wild: Myths that Make Us by Martin Shaw - saw this at Blackwell’s in Oxford and bought it. Martin has become friends with Malcolm Guite and I thought it’d be fun to read this one. I’m a bit obsessed with myths at the moment.
Bookish Adventures
May was one of the most insane bookish adventure months of my life. I spent a few weeks on and off in Oxford, England. I reconnected with an Oxford Don of mine and read in libraries I was not allowed to enter even as a student. Here are 9 photos from May:
An Oxford bookstore section I heartily approve of - Titans of Literature!
Inside the basement of Oxford’s Blackwell’s Bookshop, perhaps my favorite book room in all the world.
Inside Blackwells
Reading Plato in the Radcliffe Camera
Inside the Duke Humfrey’s Library
Inside the Duke Humfrey’s Library
Inside the Oxford Union Library
Reconnecting with my Oxford Don Dr. Susan Gillingham after 26 years.
My wife viewing a special collection of Lilias Trotter paintings and journals at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. That was cool.