Reading Classics, Chronologically Through the Ages discussion
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My hope for this year is to be balanced and well-rounded, and part of that is being realistic about how many books I should aim to read. Per usual, I expect the majority of the books I read to be from TWEM list. However, I’d also like to round out my list with some more recent and different types of books, focusing on getting through some that I already own.
TWEM:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9. Meditations
10. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
The Story of Civilization:
11.
12.
Miscellaneous:
13.
14. The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan
15.
16.
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The Well-Educated Mind:
✓The Epic of Gilgamesh (2000 B.C., Poetry)
✓The Iliad by Homer (800 B.C., Poetry)
✓The Odyssey by Homer (800 B.C., Poetry)
✓Greek Lyrics by Richmond Lattimore (600 B.C., Poetry)
✓The Oresteia Trilogy: Agamemnon/The Libation-Bearers/The Furies by Aeschylus (458 B.C., Plays)
✓The Complete Plays by Sophocles (450 B.C., Plays)
✓The Histories: The Landmark Herodotus by Herodotus (441 B.C., History)
✓Three Plays of Euripides: Alcestis/Medea/The Bacchae by Euripides (431 B.C., Plays)
✓The Birds by Aristophanes (400 B.C., Plays)
✓On Airs, Waters and Places by Hippocrates (400 B.C., Science)
The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (400 B.C., History)
✓The Republic by Plato (375 B.C., History)
✓Physics by Aristotle (330 B.C., Science) - DNF
✓Poetics by Aristotle (330 B.C., Plays)
✓On the Nature of the Universe by Lucretius (95 - 55 B.C., Science)
✓The Complete Odes and Satires of Horace (65-8 B.C., Poetry)
✓Lives, Vol 1 by Plutarch (125, History)
✓Confessions by Augustine (400, Autobiography)
✓City of God by Augustine (426, History)
✓The Ecclesiastical History of the English People/The Greater Chronicle/Letter to Egbert by Bede (731, History)
✓Beowulf (1000, Poetry)
✓Inferno by Dante Alighieri (1320, Poetry)
✓Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (1350, Poetry)
✓The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (1390, Poetry)
✓The Book of Margery Kempe by Margery Kempe (1430, Autobiography)
✓Everyman and Other Miracle and Morality Plays (1495, Plays)
✓The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (1513, History)
✓Utopia by Sir Thomas More (1516, History)
✓Commentariolus by Nicolaus Copernicus (1543, Science)
✓Sonnets by William Shakespeare (1564-1616, Poetry)
✓The Complete English Poems by John Donne (1562-1631, Poetry)
✓Michel de Montaigne: Selected Essays by Michel de Montaigne (1580, Autobiography)
✓The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila by Herself by Teresa of Avila (1588, Autobiography)
✓Dr. Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (1588, Plays)
✓Richard III by William Shakespeare (1593, Plays)
✓A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (1595, Plays)
✓Hamlet by William Shakespeare (1600, Plays)
✓Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605/1615, Novel) - Completed 2/24/17
Novum Organum by Francis Bacon (1620, Science)
Meditations by René Descartes (1641, Autobiography)
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo (1632, Science)
Micrographia by Robert Hooke (1665, Science)
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan (1666, Autobiography)
Paradise Lost by John Milton (1667, Poetry)
Tartuffe by Moliere (1669, Plays)
The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan (1679, Novel)
The Narrative of Captivity and Restoration by Mary Rowlandson (1682, Autobiography)
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica by Issac Newton (1687, Science)
The True End of Civil Government by John Locke (1690, History)
The Way of the World by William Congreve (1700, Plays)
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift (1726, Novel)
The Histroy of England, Volume V by David Hume (1754, History)
The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1762, History)
The Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith (1773, Plays)
Common Sense by Thomas Paine (1776, History)
Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake (1757-1827, Poetry)
William Wordsworth (1770-1850, Poetry)
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (1776, History)
The School for Scandal by Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1777, Plays)
Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1781, Autobiography)
Autobiography & Selected Writingsby Benjamin Franklin (1791, Autobiography)
Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft (1792, History)
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834, Poetry)
John Keats (1795-1821, Poetry)
Preliminary Discourse by Georges Cuvier (1812, Science)
✓Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813, Novel) - Completed 7/22/18
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882, Poetry)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1883, Poetry)
Walt Whitman (1819-1892, Poetry)
Emily Dickinson (1830-1886, Poetry)
Christina Rossetti (1830-1894, Poetry)
Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell (1830, Science)
Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville (1835-1840, History)
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (1838, Novel)
Gerald Manley Hopkins (1844-1889, Poetry)
✓Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847, Novel) - Completed 4/26/16
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1848, History)
The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1850, Novel)
Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1851, Novel)
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1851, Novel)
Walden and Civil Disobedience: Or, Life in the Woods by Henry David Thoreau (1854, Autobiography)
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (1857, Novel)
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1859, Science)
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burckhardt (1860, History)
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself by Harriet Jacobs (1861, Autobiography)
William Butler Yeats (1865-1939, Poetry)
Experiments in Plant Hybridization by Gregor Mendel (1865, Science)
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1866, Novel)
Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906, Poetry)
The Poetry of Robert Frost: The Collected Poems, Complete and Unabridged by Robert Frost (1874-1963, Poetry)
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy (1877, Novel)
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy (1878, Novel)
Carl Sandburg (1878-1967, Poetry)
A Doll's House and Other Plays by Henrik Ibsen (1879, Plays)
Life and Times of Frederick Douglass by Frederick Douglass (1881, Autobiography)
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry Jame (1881, Novel)
William Carlos Williams (1883-1963, Poetry)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884, Novel)
Ezra Pound (1885-1972, Poetry)
Collected Poems, 1909-1962 by T.S. Eliot (1888-1965, Poetry)
The Importance of Being Ernest by Oscar Wilde (1899, Plays)
Red Badge Of Courage by Stephen Crane (1895, Novel)
Up From Slavery by Booker T. Washington (1901, Autobiography)
Heart of Darkness by Jospeh Conrad (1902, Novel)
Langston Hughes (1902-1967, Poetry)
The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Boise (1903, History)
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Webber (1904, History)
The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (1904, Plays)
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton (1905, Novel)
W.H. Auden (1907-1973, Poetry)
Ecce Homo by Friedrich Nietzsche (1908, Autobiography)
The Origin of Continents and Oceans by Alfred Wegener (1915, Science)
The General Theory of Relativity by Albert Einstein (1916, Science)
The Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory by Max Planck (1920, Science)
Queen Victoria by Lytton Strachey (1921, History)
Philip Larkin (1922-1985, Poetry)
Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw (1924, Plays)
Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler (1925, Autobiography)
The Great Gatsbyby F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925, Novel)
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (1925, Novel)
The Trial by Franz Kafka (1925, Novel)
Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997, Poetry)
An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth by Mohandas Gandhi (1929, Autobiography)
Adrienne Rich (1929-, Poetry)
Sylvia Plath (1932-1963, Poetry)
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas by Gertrude Stein (1933, TWEM Autobiography)
Mark Strand (1934-, Poetry)
Murder in the Cathedral by T.S. Eliot (1935, Plays)
The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell (1937, History)
Our Town by Thornton Wilder (1938, Plays)
The New England Mind by Perry Miller (1939, History)
Seamus Heaney (1939-, Poetry)
Native Son by Richard Wright (1940, Novel)
Long Day's Journey Into Night by Eugene O'Neill (1940, Plays)
Robert Pinsky (1940-, Poetry)
Evolution: The Modern Synthesis by Julian Huxley (1942, Science)
The Stranger by Albert Camus (1942, Novel)
What is Life? by Erwin Schrodinger (1944, Science)
No Exit by Jean Paul Sartre (1944, Plays)
A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams (1947, Plays)
Jane Kenyon (1947-1995, Poetry)
The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton (1948, Autobiography)
✓1984 by George Orwell (1949, Novel) - Completed 1/13/15
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (1949, Plays)
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1952, Novel)
Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (1952, Plays)
Rita Dove (1952-, Poetry)
The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith (1955, History)
Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis (1955, Autobiography)
Seize the Day by Saul Bellow (1956, Novel)
The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan (1959, History)
A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt (1960, Plays)
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962, Science)
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan (1963, History)
The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Macolm X (1965, Autobiography)
The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris (1967, Science)
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard (1967, Plays)
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (1967, Novel)
The Double Helix by James D. Watson (1968, Science)
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino (1972, Novel)
Journal of a Solitude by Mary Sarton (1973, Autobiography)
The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (1973, Autobiography)
Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made by Eugene D. Genovese (1974, History)
Equus by Peter Shaffer (1974, Plays)
The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976, Science)
Born Again by Charles W. Colson (1977, Autobiography)
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison (1977, Novel)
The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg (1977, Science)
On Human Nature by E. O. Wilson (1978, Science)
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century by Barbara Tuchman (1978, History)
Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth by James Lovelock (1979, Science)
The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould (1981, Science)
Hunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez (1982, Autobiography)
White Noise by Don Delillo (1985, Novel)
All the President's Men by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein (1987, History)
Chaos: Making a New Science by James Gleick (1987, Science)
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (1988, Science)
Battle Cry of Freedon: The Civil War Era by James M. McPherson (1988, History)
The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway (1989, Autobiography)
The Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785 - 1812 by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (1990, History)
Possessoion by A.S. Byatt (1990, Novel)
The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama (1992, History)
All Rivers Run to the Sea by Elie Wiesel (1994, Autobiography)
T. Rex and the Crater of Doom by Walter Alvarez (1997, Science)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006, Novel)
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The Story of Civilization:
✓Our Oriental Heritage by Will Durant (1935)
✓The Life of Greece by Will Durant (1939)
✓Caesar and Christ by Will Durant (1944)
✓The Age of Faith by Will Durant (1950)
The Renaissance by Will Durant (1953)
The Reformation by Will Durant (1957)
The Age of Reason Begins by Will and Ariel Durant (1961)
The Age of Louis XIV by Will and Ariel Durant (1963)
The Age of Voltaire by Will and Ariel Durant (1965)
Rousseau and Revolution by Will and Ariel Durant (1967)
The Age of Napoleon by Will and Ariel Durant (1975)
U.S. History:
✓Bold Spirit: Helga Estby's Forgotten Walk Across Victorian America by Linda Lawrence Hunt (2003) - Completed 07/24/18
✓Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (2005) - Completed 10/13/16
1776 by David McCullough (2005)
Around the World in Books:
✓Albania: Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare (1971) - Completed 8/21/17
✓Afghanistan: The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi (2008) - Completed 10/19/15
✓England: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847) - Completed 4/26/16
✓Germany: Visitation by Jenny Erpenbeck (2008) - Completed 10/23/15
✓India: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (2008) - Completed 10/14/15
✓Japan: Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (2002) - Completed 1/18/18
Mexico: Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo (1955)
✓Poland: The Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz (1933)
✓Spain: Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605/1615) - Completed 2/24/17
✓Wales: How Green Was My Valley by Richard Llewellyn (1939) - Completed 3/11/16
✓Zambia: A Cowrie of Hope by Binwell Sinyangwe (2000) - Completed 11/13/17
Miscellaneous:
✓The Oldest Code of Laws in the World: The Code of Laws Promulgated by Hammurabi, King of Babylon, B.C. 2285-2242 (1754 B.C., History) - Completed 1/27/17
Orations by Cicero (63 B.C., History)
The Aeneid by Virgil (29 - 19 B.C., Plays)
✓The Sagas of Icelanders (1200 - 1400?, Saga)
✓A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There by Aldo Leopold (1949, Nature) - Completed 3/30/17
✓Night by Elie Wiesel (1958, Autobiography) - Completed 2/27/17
✓A Separate Peace by John Knowles (1959, Novel) - Completed 11/06/18
✓Imperial Spain, 1469-1716 by J.H. Elliott (1960, History) - Completed 1/18/17
✓Geography of Home: Writings on Where We Live by Akiko Busch (1999, Architecture) - Completed 08/29/18
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Even though I read 57 books in 2016, I'm going to drastically lessen my book goal in 2017 so I can dedicate more time for savoring and really studying the books I read. A..."
ooooo How exciting! No, really. I got excited reading through your list topics. :-D
You've got me thinking too about quality of reading/savoring/reflecting vs. trying to reach a specific # of books. I'm wondering how I myself can balance those 2 things. With respect to the # of books, it isn't even about feeling proud over a quantity, it really comes down to the fact that I have so many books I want to read over my lifetime and so I want to tackle as many as I can. But at the same time, I love to reflect and savor as much as possible.
*sigh* #bookwormProblems
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Thank you, Cleo! Best of luck to you too!
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It is hard though. Sometimes I get so excited about how many awesome books I have to read that it actually distracts me from reading! Some days I swear I spend a greater portion of my time planning my reading lists instead of actually working on them. It needs to be a balance.
As for time spent pondering vs reading more, I just sort of follow my curiosity. If a book fascinates me, I'll dive deeper into it and do more analysis, but if I'm uninterested, I'll move on to the next one. No use wasting time on a boring book when there are so many other good ones to read!
I'm also recognizing that my reading goals have actually made me more introverted. So in my case, it might actually be better to lessen the reading goal and spend more time investing in friendships!
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I chuckled when I read this, because you've described me to a T! I love making reading lists and thinking about all the wonderful book treasures I will be engaging with, just as much as I enjoy actually engaging with them!
I agree there's no point in wasting time on a boring book. There are too many books to get to as it is--one can't afford to waste time!
Kendra wrote: "I'm also recognizing that my reading goals have actually made me more introverted. So in my case, it might actually be better to lessen the reading goal and spend more time investing in friendships! "
I can see how reading a lot will encourage one to act more introvert-like--whether or not one is actually introverted. I myself am a "social introvert," or an ambivert that skews towards introversion. I am married to a highly extroverted husband, so we actually spend quite a lot of time investing in friendships. That means I have the opposite problem: I constantly struggle to prioritize my reading time in between tending to my work, my marriage, my friendships/social events, and other life responsibilities (chores, errands, the never-ending to-do list,...). I think most of my friends are shocked that I am able to read as much as I do. Luckily I read A TON from a young age (the love for books came naturally to me)--and all those years of reading practice mean I read a bit faster than average. If I were a slow reader...I don't know what I'd do!
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As strange as it sounds, I think I'm the same. On one hand, I love people and interaction, and then on the other I like being by myself. It's nice to know that I'm not alone ... ;-)
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Now, will someone yell at me to ACTUALLY READ?
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LoL I would except it looks as though you've already made plenty of headway in 2017! I see you've read 5 books in January. That's immense progress! :-D
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Now, was that helpful?
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I think I mainly just want to finish Don Quixote - it's been like 6 months since I started it.
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That. Is. Amazing. haha!
Kendra wrote: "...I think I mainly just want to finish Don Quixote - it's been like 6 months since I started it.
..."
I get antsy with long reads too. I have to plow through them if I don't want to lose momentum. Even when I genuinely enjoy them, I still get restless if it takes a while to get through. But it's difficult with life obligations, commitments, and responsibilities... I feel as though I've been reading Bauer's History of the Ancient World forever, and now with The Histories...*sigh* #theStruggleIsReal
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#1 Stop going to the library. ;-)
#2 Well, I can't actually think of any other rules, so I'll just say that I sympathize with your anguishingly long read of Don Quixote. I'm sort of stalled with it now too and since I'm really concentrating on Herodotus, I can't see getting back to it in the next month or so. Sigh!
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It's funny that I'm having to put limits on myself. But I decided that once I reach my book "goal" of 25 books, I'm going to limit myself solely to TWEM books so then I can also focus on learning Latin, since I'd love to read a lot of the later books in their original Latin.
I'm a huge nerd, but I am embracing it completely!
Also, I had 4 TBD spots left on my plan for the year so I grabbed 4 books off my shelf of unread books and planted them in. Now I have that all settled - I have a plan and I'm sticking to it. It'll be interesting to see how much I enjoy a structured reading plan compared to my whatever-seems-interesting mentality of years past.
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I have no idea. I've barely looked into resources, I've just decided I'm going to do it. I could use recommendations if you have them.
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But first, I really just need to finish Don Quixote!
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Oh heavens, me too! I'm stalled at about chapter 30. I think the fact that I have so many other reads going, and that I've read it before is preventing me from giving it focus. It might just sit around unread ...... perish the thought ..... ! ;-)
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I'm well into part 2 - maybe 75% done with the book, and I truly am enjoying it! I just got distracted by library books that needed to be read and returned. But I'm going on a trip this weekend and I'm only allowing myself to bring my one library book and DQ, so hopefully I'll make some good progress.
You're reading Herodotus right now, though, so I don't blame you for stalling! History takes a lot more time and energy to read than most novels.
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Don Quixote was about disenchantment with life - choosing a fairy tale world over reality. I can sympathize with that. I pondered that if reality is so terrible, can't it be better to live in a delusion? Sure, none of it is real, but does truth really matter so long as you're happy? But then I was slapped in the face with Night. That reality was horrifying - probably the worst any of us could imagine. And we have a duty to not ignore the truth, as terrible as it might be.
I still have a lot to process with both books but I have the next few days off work to do that. I have one more chapter in the first part of Our Oriental Heritage and then I'll jump over to The Life of Greece. I'm hoping to make a lot of headway in that over the next few days so that I can start The Iliad within a week or two.
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I'm also probably going to take a trip to the quirky used book store nearby. The place has books piled from floor to ceiling with weird trinkets all over. It's run by an older woman named Fluffy who recently had a stroke but didn't let that stop her. The only compromise she made was to cut a day and only be open 50 hours a week, compared to her previous 60. The woman is a beast and I want to support her.
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Congratulations on finishing The Iliad. I am planning to listed to it soon.
For the Odyssey, I've heard good things about the Stanley Lombardo translation being easier to read than others. He also performs it on audio, which is what I hope to listen to when I get to The Odyssey.
Fluffy's book store sounds awesome. :-)
-Julie
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I don't expect I'll be able to finish Medea by the end of this month but I think I should be able to participate in the next group read. I'm so happy to finally be catching up! (Note: I will be reading other things alongside The Histories because it seems like that was a troublesome read for many)
I will probably slow down in September, though, because I will be traveling for almost a month. First to visit family for a week and then to Iceland for 2.5 weeks! I bought a book of Icelandic Sagas to accompany my trip so that will likely be my primary read.
All in all, though, I seem to be on track in most areas of my reading plan for the year, so I am happy.
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(By the way, I think Medea is only about 50 pages long. Even so, I am more likely to find a performance of it on Youtube to watch than to read it.)
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(By the way, I think Medea is only about 50 pages long. Even so, I am more likely to find a performance of it on Youtube to watch than to read it.)"
Yes, Medea is very short. I plan to read it within the next couple of weeks. And finding a performance to watch is an excellent idea!
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I recently re-took the Strengths Finder test and my top 3 strengths were Learner, Input, and Intellection. Haha, yep, that about sums it up.
Interestingly enough, when I first took the test 6 years ago, none of those were in my top 5. In fact, there was only one that was the same (Positivity).
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The biggest challenge for me is going to be finishing Our Oriental Heritage. I've discovered that it's easier for me to read this simultaneously while listening to the audiobook - it helps me to focus and take in more information. I still have 20 hours of listening but I think if I'm able to stay consistent, I should be able to finish it by the end of this year.
Then I have my 4 around the world books. I don't expect I'll have any problems finishing these - I can usually zip through novels pretty quickly.
Lastly, I'd like to try and finish the Icelandic Sagas. I made it about 1/4 of the way through during my trip and if I have some time at the end of the year, I want to try and complete them.
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-Julie
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I had a pretty good year of reading and completed almost everything I set out to read - there are a few Around the World books that I wasn't able to complete in time, but they are at the top of my list in 2018.
My biggest accomplishment of the year was finishing Our Oriental Heritage - that book took a lot of effort but it was absolutely worth it. Sophocles was definitely my favorite read of the year, though.
I also learned that I need a balance between the structure of a detailed plan and the spontaneity of following my curiosities when it comes to reading, so that I stay interested.
Books Completed in 2017
TWEM:
Don Quixote by Cervantes - Completed 2/24/17
Gilgamesh - Completed 1/07/17
The Iliad - Completed 7/09/17
The Odyssey - Completed 7/17/17
Greek Lyrics - Completed 8/01/17
Agamemnon - Completed 8/09/17
Oedipus the King - Completed 8/27/17
The Story of Civilization:
Our Oriental Heritage - Completed 11/14/17
Around the World in Books:
Chronicle in Stone by Ismail Kadare (Albania) - Completed 8/21/17
A Cowrie of Hope by Binwell Sinyangwe (Zambia) - Completed 11/13/17
Miscelaneous:
Imperial Spain, 1469-1716 by J.H. Elliott - Completed 1/18/17
Code of Hammurabi - Completed 1/27/17
Night by Elie Wiesel - Completed 2/27/17
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold - Completed 3/30/17
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But, ultimately, I'm okay with that. I'm choosing to prioritize this group/reading list over others. I'd read it all eventually...
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Another great year of reading! I finished 25 books in all – definitely fewer than previous years but still something to be proud of. Plus, I read more longer books this year, which definitely impacted that final number.
I’ve really enjoyed the opportunity to take the reins and lead this group. It definitely motivated me to keep up and read the books, especially when I started getting distracted. There were a few books I intended to read/finish this year that I just didn’t get around to. Hopefully I’ll get to them next year.
Books Completed
TWEM:
The Histories by Herodotus - Completed 5/01/18
Three Plays of Euripides: Alcestis/Medea/The Bacchae - Completed 4/01/18
The Birds by Aristophanes - Completed 4/07/18
On Airs, Waters, and Places by Hippocrates - Completed 4/08/18
The Republic by Plato – Completed 6/2/18
Poetics by Aristotle – Complete 6/27/18
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – Completed 7/22/18
Physics by Aristotle – DNF 8/08/18
Odes by Horace – Completed 9/02/18
On the Nature of Things by Lucretius – Completed 9/24/18
The Story of Civilization:
The Life of Greece by Will Durant – Completed 11/02/18
Around the World in Books:
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami (Japan) – Completed 1/18/18
The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories by Bruno Schulz (Poland) - Completed 3/01/18
Planned But Didn’t Read:
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
The Sagas of Icelanders by Örnólfur Thorsson
The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides
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I hope you get to History of the Peloponnesian War in 2019. It was one that I really enjoyed.
You did a great job! Happy reading in 2019!
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Cleo, I can't say I understood/retained a lot of The Republic, but I did get to read it while in Athens so I have a fondness for it.
I hope I can read Peloponnesian War! Maybe if I finish City of God soon (I'm reading an abridged version!) I might be able to get started with it before February. Or I'll just work on finishing Lives... So many big books!
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And just like that another year is done. My reading this year reflected a continued commitment to this group and The Well Educated Mind list, as well as an expanding interest in science and natural history.
This was a year of change for me personally and, in some ways, my reading habits aligned with those changes. But, on the other hand, over half of my books were from TWEM and I wonder how much of that content impacted the changes I experienced.
My favorite book of the year was definitively Behave by Robert Sapolsky. While very much a science book, Sapolsky wrote it in such a way that it inspired philosophy and reflection. I definitely intend to read it again soon and spend more time with its numerous ideas.
Books Completed:
TWEM:
1. The City of God by Augustine
2. The Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede
3. Beowulf
4. Inferno by Dante Alighieri
5. Sir Gawin and the Green Knight
6. The Centerbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
7. The Book of Margery Kempe
8. Everyman
9. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
10. Utopia by Sir Thomas More
11. Commentariolus by Nicolaus Copernicus
12. Sonnets by William Shakespeare
Miscellaneous:
13. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey
14. High School by Sara Quin and Teagan Quin
15. Mind of the Raven by Bernd Heinrich
16. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
17. Sissy by Jacob Tobia
18. Behave by Robert Sapolsky
19. A Field Guido to Your Own Backyard by John Hanson Mitchell
20. How to Read Nature by Tristan Gooley
21. The Defining Decade by Meg Jay
Planned But Didn’t Complete:
- Cesar and Christ by Will Durant – While I made some progress on this one, I didn’t get nearly as far as I wished.
- The Sagas of Icelanders by Örnólfur Thorsson – This one has been sitting around since 2017… Maybe 2020 will be the year I complete it?
Reading Classics, Chronologically Through the Ages
Books mentioned in this topic
Selected Essays (other topics)The Life of Saint Teresa of Ávila by Herself (other topics)
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Volume 1 of 2 (other topics)
The Complete English Poems (other topics)
Utopia (other topics)
More...
The Well Educated Mind List
I am reading through the lists chronologically, but I may skip around just a bit if I need a change of pace/genre.
The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant
An 11-volume history of civilization up to the French Revolution. I am taking this series slowly and using it to give a historical context to the books I am reading.
U.S. History
I'd like to read a biography of each president and other influential Americans. I'd also like to read important documents and about other historical events.
Around the World in Books
I intend to read at least one novel from each country in the world. I prefer an author who was born and raised in that country and where the novel is set in their home country. I'm flexible with the classification for more obscure countries.
Miscellaneous
These are a collection of "great books" or classics that don't fit in to any of the categories above, but which I deem worthy of recording.
Here's to a lifetime of reading!