The Immortal Books

I'll be reading these Immortal Books over the next 15 years

“Love the eternal books that express eternal truths.” ~ A.G. Sertillanges

The Great Immortal Books

I’ve never sensed that the term The Great Books properly encapsulates the books in those lists. It lacks gravitas. I regularly hear people refer to books they’ve read as great, but they are not on Great Books lists.

These books have stood the test of time and are still being read. They contain ideas that are eternal, immortal. I propose we begin calling them The Immortal Books.

What makes a book immortal?

• It has stood the test of time.

• The ideas are in conversation with other immortal books.

• It has influenced many cultures.

• It is still being read today.

Why?

I started the Books of Titans reading project in 2017 with a desire to read 52 books per year. Many of the books were modern books. I quickly realized, as Cormac McCarthy has said, that “Books are made out of books.” In 2018, I read Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Later that year, I read a number of books that pulled a single idea from Kahneman’s book and applied it to a specific field. I thought to myself - I didn’t need to read these other books, the Kahneman book was the source of the others.

It got me thinking about my own reading life. Was my goal to keep reading a bunch of random books per year or to begin to focus on books with more depth?

I had also been collecting Immortal Books over my lifetime, knowing there was a level of importance to them, but being intimidated by their renowned stature. I didn’t know if I would be able to understand them or appreciate them.

I came to a place where I knew I wanted to read these Immortal Books before I died. I also knew from my reading project that if I didn’t make a plan to read them, that it would never happen.

So in 2023, I began reading through The Immortal Books in chronological order beginning with The Epic of Gilgamesh. I was floored. I ended up reading that book 4 times and have pursued different intellectual rabbit trails as a result of ideas in that epic. I couldn’t believe a story written 4,000 years ago could resonate so much.

Since then, it has only gotten better. 2024 was my most enjoyable reading year ever, encountering Greek masters Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Thucydides, and Xenophon.

I’ve quickly seen how these books engage in The Great Conversation. How Homer introduces ideas later picked up by the Greek Tragedians. How the Greek history writers show Athenians dealing with their ideals in the world of war and real politik.

I have dedicated the next 15 years of my reading life to these Immortal Books.

Immortal Books by 200 Authors

I have curated a list of Immortal Books written by 200 authors whose works engage in conversation across time and cultures. I’ll be reading these books in chronological order over a period of 15 years to trace the evolution of ideas and philosophies through history. An attempt was made to capture works from the East & West.

I found it better to arrange by author than by book. For some of the authors, I want to read multiple books of theirs. I think of these entries more as line items that may contain just 1 book or an entire collection. For example, I decided to read all existing tragedy plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, I’ll also likely spend a year with Shakespeare, attempting to read as many of his plays as possible. There are many works without an author. For some of the works, the author is unknown or there is a collection of authors.

My Full Reading List

The estimated year is based upon one of the following:

• For early works, by estimated year of composition.

• For ancient works, by year of author death.

• For more modern works, by publication date for their most famous work.

Since I’m reading these in chronological order, it’s important that I read books referencing other books after I’ve read the source material.

Missing Anything?

I have consulted a variety of lists to compile my own list and have asked countless professors and lovers of literature for their recommendations. If you see that I’m missing anything (remember, I’m limiting it to 200 authors), please let me know by clicking the button below and scrolling down to the form at the bottom.

Want to Join?

Want to join me in reading these books? I post my yearly reading lists here where you can follow along. I’m also starting an online reading group this year where we read through one of these Immortal Books a month. I’ve selected short books that can be read within 2 - 5 hours and we kick off with The Epic of Gilgamesh. Simply become a paid subscriber on my Substack to join the reading group.