Beginning January 1, 2023, I will be a transitioning from Phase I to Phase II of this reading project. Phase II will consist of a 10 year quest to read through The Great Books. As part of this project, I will start each year reading straight through a different version of the Bible during January & February. I will then proceed with the Great Books, taking breaks during July and December.
January – February 2023
The Bible + The Apocrypha
This year, I’ll be reading through the Bible + Apocrypha, American Literary Version, Bibliotheca Edition. I’ll read straight through from Genesis to Revelation. Want to join me?
Full List
| # | Book | Author | Version | Translation | # of Pages |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Epic of Gilgamesh | Penguin Classics | Andrew George | 220 | |
| 2 | The Epic of Gilgamesh | Atria | Stephen Mitchell | 199 | |
| 3 | Writings from Ancient Egypt | Penguin Classics | Toby Wilkinson | 311 | |
| 4 | The Rig Veda | Penguin Classics | Wendy Doniger | 297 | |
| 5 | Enuma Elish | Timothy J. Stephany | 107 | ||
| 6 | The Iliad | Homer | Ecco | Caroline Alexander | 541 |
| 7 | Theogony & Works and Days | Hesiod | Oxford World’s Classics | M. L. West | 61 |
| 8 | The Odyssey | Homer | Norton | Emily Wilson | 525 |
| 9 | Stung with Love: Poems and Fragments | Sappho | Penguin Classics | Aaron Poochigian | 93 |
| 10 | If No, Winter: Fragments of Sappho | Sappho | Vintage | Anne Carson | 355 |
| 11 | Aesop’s Fables | Aesop | Barnes & Nobel Illustrated | 451 | |
| 12 | The Oresteia (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides) | Aeschylus | Everyman’s Library | George Thomson | 127 |
| 13 | Prometheus Bound | Aeschylus | Penguin Classics | Philip Vellacott | 152 |
| 14 | Theban Plays (Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus Colonus) | Sophocles | Everyman’s Library | 304 | |
| 15 | The Histories | Herodotus | The Landmark Herodotus | Andrea Purvis | 722 |
| 16 | Clouds, Birds, Lysistrata, Women of the Assembly | Aristophanes | Liveright | Aaron Poochigian | 376 |
| 17 | Medea | Euripides | Penguin Classics | Philip Vellacott | 199 |
| 18 | The Bacchae | Euripides | Penguin Classics | John Davie | 261 |
| 19 | History of the Peloponnesian War | Thucydides | The Landmark Thucydides | Richard Crawley | 554 |
| 20 | Apology | Plato | Pocket Book | Jewett | 40 |
| 21 | Laches | Plato | The Collected Dialogues of Plato | Benjamin Jowett | 22 |
| 22 | Symposium | Plato | The Collected Dialogues of Plato | Michael Joyce | 49 |
| 23 | Philebus | Plato | The Collected Dialogues of Plato | R. Hackforth | 65 |
| 24 | Crito | Plato | The Collected Dialogues of Plato | Hugh Tredennick | 13 |
| 25 | Phaedo | Plato | The Collected Dialogues of Plato | Hugh Tredennick | 59 |
| 26 | Theatetus | Plato | The Collected Dialogues of Plato | F. M. Cornford | 75 |
| 27 | Meno | Plato | The Collected Dialogues of Plato | W. K. C. Guthrie | 32 |
| 28 | The Republic | Plato | Basic Books | Allan Bloom | 528 |
| 29 | Rhetoric | Aristotle | University of Chicago Press | Robert Bartlett | 274 |
| 30 | Physics | Aristotle | Rutgers University Press | Joe Sachs | 241 |
| 31 | Politics | Aristotle | University of Chicago Press | Carnes Lord | 238 |
| 32 | Nichomachean Ethics | Aristotle | University of Chicago Press | Robert Bartlett & Susan Collins | 302 |
| 33 | Poetics | Aristotle | Penguin Classics | Malcolm Heath | 48 |
| 34 | Analects | Confucius | Everyman’s Library | Arthur Waley | 240 |
| 35 | Elements | Euclid | Green Lion Press | 481 | |
| 36 | The Art of Happiness | Epicurus | Penguin Classics | George Strodach | 240 |