Reading Recap: Sept 2024 Books & October Schedule
October marks a shift from Euripides into Thucydides.
I highlight my reading life here each 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.
September Reading Recap
I started reading Euripides in September and it has been incredible. He’s the last of the three Greek Tragedy playwrights and wrote between 17 and 19 plays (two are contested). I decided to read all 19 and have finished 10 so far. They’ve been astonishing.
Medea and Other Plays | August 29 - September 10
In this Penguin Classics edition, I read Medea, Hecabe, Electra, Heracles. My favorite was Medea and I covered it in a podcast episode:
I also covered Hecabe (Hecuba) in another episode:
Heracles and Other Plays | September 10 - 17
In this Oxford World’s Classics edition, I read Alcestis, Children of Heracles, Cyclops. Alcestis was a mix of tragedy and comedy dealing with Greek expectations of marriage and guest friendship. Cyclops was a satyr play, a sort of college fraternity wrapped into a Greek Tragedy. I covered Alcestis in a podcast episode:
I also had a fun post where I described the Alcestis tragedy through a work of art:
Hippolytus, Iphigenia in Tauris | September 17 - 24
Iphigenia in Tauris was a neat tragedy that provided an alternate ending to a common myth. In this one, instead of being sacrificed by her father Agamemnon, Iphigenia is whisked away at the last moment and reunites with her brother. It’s a neat take and here’s my podcast episode about it.
October Reading Plan
I finished my third reading of The Iliad on Sunday morning (Oct 6). I’m currently leading a local reading group where we’re reading through the epic. We cover 3 books a week (of 24 total). I love this book so much and it’s been wonderful discussing it weekly we a small group of people, most of whom are reading it for the very first time.
I’m closing out Euripides for now with plans to return to his other 7 tragedy plays either later this year or early next year.
I start a Catherine Project reading group this Thursday covering Thucydides. We’ll take one chapter a week. I had started this book earlier this year and shelved it. I’m glad I did so because now I’ll be able to read it in a group. I expect that to take most of the month of October.
Other News
I’m the business manager at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin, TN and we have 38 authors coming during the month of October. Some highlights are John Hendrix and his new book The Mythmakers, Spencer Klavan and his new book Light of the Mind, Light of the World, and Abram Van Enger with his book Word Made Fresh. If you’re ever in the Nashville area, please make a plan to stop by the store. It’s a booklover’s paradise.
I spoke to two schools this past month: Pepperdine University and Franklin High School. I spoke to Jessica Hooten Wilson’s Great Books classes about this reading project and spoke to two honors classes at Franklin High about the Great Books. I really desire to encourage young people in their reading lives.
Maybe it’s the translations, but Thucydides is the first author from antiquity who speaks with a modern voice