I have another piece of advice. Audiobooks for classics and especially those that were not to be read but listened to. I just finished Iliad in the newest translation by Caroline Alexander and brilliantly narrated as an audiobook and it was amazing.
Your podcast has been a great companion to a year long reading list of classics from Ted Gioia over at the Honest Broker on Substack. Thanks for the great resource!
Following your posts has been inspiring to keep reading more of the classics. The average publish year of my "completed" stack is moving farther and farther back in time. 😆
I'm wondering how closely you've stuck to your original list. I keep a list but often jump around or see the next "shiny object" in the classics section at a bookstore and go with that instead of staying disciplined to any particular order. I imagine the chronological route helps with that? Thanks for posting.
So far, the broad categories have mostly stayed the same but I'm constantly changing the books therein. For example, Euripides was on my list, but my original plan was to read 3 or 4 of his plays. I've changed that to now reading all 19 of his plays. Also, I call my project Great Books + where I'm pairing each book with a guidebook to help me better understand the author, cultural context, or subject matter. I choose those pretty close to around the time I read the Great Book. Something else I've changed is just being free to add books. They may not be Great Books, but I've added Pindar, Apollonius (to learn about Jason and the Golden Fleece), and Apollodorus (to learn about Heracles).
To complicate matters further, my list of Great Books is a little more than 200. But those 200 are more line items than books. Shakespeare is a line item but I plan to read most of his plays. Euripides is a line item but I'm reading all of his surviving plays.
So yeah, I'm allowing for a lot of flexibility while trying to keep to a structure of roughly 200 final "Great Books." I estimate it will take me 15 years total.
I have another piece of advice. Audiobooks for classics and especially those that were not to be read but listened to. I just finished Iliad in the newest translation by Caroline Alexander and brilliantly narrated as an audiobook and it was amazing.
Your podcast has been a great companion to a year long reading list of classics from Ted Gioia over at the Honest Broker on Substack. Thanks for the great resource!
That’s awesome!
Following your posts has been inspiring to keep reading more of the classics. The average publish year of my "completed" stack is moving farther and farther back in time. 😆
That's awesome!
I'm wondering how closely you've stuck to your original list. I keep a list but often jump around or see the next "shiny object" in the classics section at a bookstore and go with that instead of staying disciplined to any particular order. I imagine the chronological route helps with that? Thanks for posting.
So far, the broad categories have mostly stayed the same but I'm constantly changing the books therein. For example, Euripides was on my list, but my original plan was to read 3 or 4 of his plays. I've changed that to now reading all 19 of his plays. Also, I call my project Great Books + where I'm pairing each book with a guidebook to help me better understand the author, cultural context, or subject matter. I choose those pretty close to around the time I read the Great Book. Something else I've changed is just being free to add books. They may not be Great Books, but I've added Pindar, Apollonius (to learn about Jason and the Golden Fleece), and Apollodorus (to learn about Heracles).
To complicate matters further, my list of Great Books is a little more than 200. But those 200 are more line items than books. Shakespeare is a line item but I plan to read most of his plays. Euripides is a line item but I'm reading all of his surviving plays.
So yeah, I'm allowing for a lot of flexibility while trying to keep to a structure of roughly 200 final "Great Books." I estimate it will take me 15 years total.
Thanks for sharing more about your process. It sounds like you put a lot of thought into it. You've inspired me to reflect more on my reading plan!