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Alex & Books's avatar

Amazing work and mission Erik!

From the Shelves's avatar

I bought Tools of Titans as a gift for a friend some years ago. It's funny, right before I was about to give it to him, I flipped through it and thought, "Man, I should've bought a copy for myself!"

The exciting thing about reading is that it's a journey with no end. At the expense of sounding cliche, this is one of the most wonderful gifts in life.

I for one can say it's changed my life and inspired me to write so many articles and newsletters.

Here's to a bright future!

Joanie's avatar

Agreed Brenna- I always say books beget books! But, Eric, how did you extrapolate from 15- 40 years? I am just curious what trove was discovered. I could see that you might find a few more years of reading but this is obviously a whole lot more reading.

Erik Rostad's avatar

It came down to a few decisions I made last year:

1. To read the complete works of Plato instead of just a few.

2. Once I got into Plato and realized he was referencing earlier philosophers, I wanted to read their works. So, I purchased 4 books of earlier philosophers and realized I'll want to do that for the rest of this project.

That's why the jump was so drastic, from 15 - 40 years. That gives me time to explore complete works of the 200 authors I've chosen, fill in gaps in knowledge, and pursue some other rabbit trails along the way.

Joanie's avatar

Oh ok! So you mean for each author on your immortal books list, you want to read their entire published library! Gotcha! Wow! That’s impressive! Love how inspiring you are!

Brenna Lee's avatar

"Books come from books" -- I've made this same, delightful discovery. Making connections between books, to me, is one of the coolest parts of all. It's almost like the books are having a conversation with each other. I've also found that footnotes and bibiographies can be a goldmine.