Books of Titans Podcast

I’m going to begin covering my monthly reading recaps on the podcast. This way, I can show you the books I’ve been reading and go into more detail. Be sure to watch or listen to this recap in addition to reading the material below:

October 2026 Reading

Voltaire • Plato • Apollonius of Rhodes

I continued on the Plato Project during October and focused mainly on the Euthydemus & Meno dialogues. It was very good. I also read Candide by Voltaire and am in the midst of Jason and the Argonauts. Both of those books were for the Short Great Books reading group I lead at Landmark Booksellers.

November 2026 Reading Plan

One More Month of Plato

November is my final month of the year where I focus on The Great Books (I take winter break in December). I’ll be reading Plato’s Meno and then as many other dialogues as I can get through by the end of the month.

My goal is to read the complete works of Plato, so I’ll need to keep that going in 2027 as I still have a ways to go. Here’s my current status:

* Read - Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Cratylus, Theaetetus, Sophist, Statesman, Parmenides, Philebus, Symposium, Phaedrus, Alcibiades, Second Alcibiades, Hipparchus, Rival Lovers, Theages, Charmides, Laches, Lysis, Ion, Republic, Euthydemus, Meno

* Yet to Read - Protagoras, Gorgias, Greater Hippias, Lesser Hippias, Menexenus, Clitophon, Timaeus, Critias, Minos, Laws, Epinomis, Letters, Definitions, On Justice, On Virtue, Demodocus, Sisyphus, Halcyon, Eryxias, Axiochus, Epigrams

Recently Acquired

October Book Purchases

I only had one book purchase during October and here it is:

* Timaeus and Critias - I really enjoy Robin Waterfield’s introductions and translations and wanted to be prepared for when I got to these dialogues.

Bookish Adventures

October was full of author events at Landmark Booksellers. The highlight was an event with Gary Sinise with Jack Carr as the moderator. The event was around Gary’s upcoming book Graceful Warrior, a book about his son who recently passed away from cancer. It was a somber but hopeful event. Gary’s work is so deeply meaningful and I share some of what I learned from him in this episode.

Here are some other photos from author events during October:

I set aside one post per month to highlight my reading life. Books of Titans is a reading project aimed at seeking the ancient paths by reading The Great Books by 200 Authors chronologically over the next 40 years. Thank you for following my journey.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://www.booksoftitans.com/subscribe

I’ve just started reading Jason and the Argonauts for the monthly Short Great Books reading group that I lead. It got me thinking about Greek Mythology and what the best way to immerse yourself in that world. I offer some thoughts, suggest some books, and give my opinion on where to start.

Here are the books mentioned in this episode:

Mythology by Edith Hamilton

This is the best starting point. Edith Hamilton collected tales from a variety of sources (Hesiod, Homer, Ovid, and others) to present the full stories of many of the gods you’ll come across in your reading. Edith also highlights both the Greek and Roman names of the gods. Here’s my podcast episode about this book:

Theogony by Hesiod

Hesiod was either a contemporary of Homer or was very close in the timeline. His book Theogonycovers the genealogy of the gods. This is very helpful in understanding which god gave birth to which god. This knowledge oftentimes provides insight into character qualities of the gods (for example, memory gave birth to the muses). Here’s my podcast episode about this book:

The Homeric Hymns

This is a collection of 33 hymns to the gods. These hymns contain a variety of stories about those gods. I found this to be a very entertaining way of learning about the Greek pantheon. Here’s my podcast episode about this book:

Greek Epic Fragments

Did you know that Homer’s Iliad & Odyssey are just two works out of eight total that compose the Trojan Epic Cycle? The six other works are lost to us, but many authors (Aeschylus, Pindar, Euripides, and Herodotus among others) referenced these epics, providing fragments we can access. Additionally, a writer named Proclus compiled plot summaries of each of the six lost works in his collection called Chrestomathy. This has left us with general outlines of what these six works contained, and they are presented in this Loeb Classical Library book. Some of the stories are the Judgement of Paris, the kidnapping of Helen, the Trojan Horse, and the death of Odysseus. Here’s my podcast episode about this book:

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Euthydemus is a fun early Socratic dialogue seeking to determine who can best teach virtue: the philosopher or the Sophist. Euthydemus and his brother Dionsydorus represent the Sophists. They claim to teach virtue better and faster than anyone else. Socrates, represents the philosopher, and attempts to distinguish his methods from those of the Sophists. Can the Sophist’s teach virtue through deceitful means or can that only come through seeking truth like the philosopher?

In this episode, I talk about the difference between sophia and philosophy (a love of sophia), means vs ends, and virtue bridging the knowledge and love gap.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://www.booksoftitans.com/subscribe

In my recent article, I walked through the Path of Candide by Voltaire. This hilarious satire was written as a response to a particular idea about optimism put forward by Leibniz early in the 1700s. That idea met the 1755 Lisbon earthquake that shook Voltaire’s acceptance of the idea that this was the best of all possible worlds.

Voltaire’s response was to explore optimism through the use of satire. The result is a work considered to be one of the key texts of the enlightenment. In this episode, I consider the path to Candide, talk a bit about the story, and share the one thing that stuck out to me most about this short Great Book.

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://www.booksoftitans.com/subscribe

I set aside one post per month to highlight my reading life. This month I’m tying a podcast episode to my regular post. Books of Titans is a reading project aimed at seeking the ancient paths by reading The Great Books by 200 Authors chronologically over the next 40 years. Thank you for following my journey.

September 2026 Reading

Plato’s Republic

I spent the month of September reading Plato’s Republic. I started with the John M. Cooper Complete Works there on the left (translation by G.M.A. Grube with a revision by C.D.C. Reeve) and am currently working my way through Allan Bloom’s translation and essay on the right. My goal was to read it three times during September, but it’s a lot longer and harder than I anticipated.

I’m really glad that I read a number of Plato’s dialogues before reading The Republic. It gave me a good introduction before reading this much larger and more comprehensive dialogue. And in turn, it has helped me better understand his other dialogues that I have read. This is his greatest hits and I touches on a number of topics from his other dialogues but in a manner that is more concise and focused.

October 2026 Reading Plan

Plato • Voltaire • Lao Tzu

The next book for the Short Great Books Reading Group I lead is Voltaire’s Candide. I’ve never read it and don’t know what to expect, but I have a few days to read it before we meet on Monday.

After that, I’m back to Plato. I still need to read the interpretive essay in Allan Bloom’s Republic translation. I may then take a quick Plato break to read Lao Tzu, an author who lived nearly 200 years before Plato (and who I mistakenly skipped on my chronological read-through of the 200 authors on my Great Books list). I’ll mainly focus on Plato during October & November this year. In December, I’m going to be reading books about trees!

I may return to some other dialogues before beginning my 3rd reading of The Republic. Here are the dialogues I still have pending for Plato:

* Euthydemus, Protagoras, Gorgias, Meno, Greater Hippias, Lesser Hippias, Menexenus, Clitophon, Timaeus, Critias, Minos, Laws, Epinomis, Letters, Definitions, On Justice, On Virtue, Demodocus, Sisyphus, Halcyon, Eryxias, Axiochus, Epigrams

Recently Acquired

September Book Purchases

My wife Stephanie (Check out her music here) and I travelled to Scotland during September and I visited some of my favorite bookstores. Here are the books I purchased for my library. Let me highlight a few of them:

Aeschylus Loeb II - I consider his Oresteia trilogy to be one of the most important works ever written. When I saw this edition at a pre-owned price, I jumped on it.

George MacDonald - A Short Life by Elizabeth Saintsbury - George MacDonald is my wife’s favorite author and we named one of our our daughters the same name as one of George’s daughters. There are some nice photos in that book.

Malcolm by George MacDonald - There is an incredible inscription in this copy of Malcolm that I purchased in Aberdeen. Check it out:

Bookish Adventures

When I hit the ground in Edinburgh, I make my way around my bookshop loop. Here’s a note I wrote about that beloved loop:

Here are some other bookshop and book-related photos from September:

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A quick episode where I look at a question posed in Book 1 of Plato’s Republic - can those moving towards injustice accomplish their goal while being unjust to one another?

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Ever go to someone’s house and wonder at how their library came about? What were the first books they purchased? How did that lead to other books? What are their favorites? Which ones would they grab in the event of a fire?

In this episode, I pull 7 books from my shelves and talk about what they meant to me, how I got them, and what I found inside (I use fun items for bookmarks). It’s a representative sample from my larger library.

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I’m in the midst of my Plato Project, which is my attempt to read the complete works of Plato. I’m near the mid-way point, and while the reading is quite difficult, it’s been extremely rewarding. I’m dedicating the month of September to Plato’s Republic. One thing that has been interesting so far is to see references to topics from Plato’s other dialogues. It’s making me very glad that I did not start with The Republic but read some of his other dialogues first.

For instance, I keep seeing references to the definition of self-control, something the Charmides dialogue focuses on. Courage is also referenced quite a bit, something the Laches dialogue covers. These references in The Republic have been helpful in answering some of the questions I still had after reading those other dialogues.

In this episode of the podcast, I talk about a few of the connections between Plato’s Republic and Ion dialogues. In Ion, Plato has Socrates question a rhapsode named Ion about his expertise in performing the poetry of Homer. The Republic (written 5 years after Ion) helps answer some questions I had after reading Ion.

This is episode 300 of the podcast, and I can’t think of a more perfect topic to mark the milestone. One of my main goals with this reading project is to make connections across the books that I read, and here, I get to connect different dialogues by Plato and share how they inform one another.

If you’re interested in learning more about Ion, here’s a wonderful discussion I took part in with the brilliant minds over at Ascend - The Great Books Podcast:

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Laches is another one of Plato’s Dialogues of Search. In this one, Plato is seeking a definition for the Greek word andreia (ἀνδρεία), which is typically translated as courage, fortitude, or manliness (manly virtue). Two seasoned Athenian generals (Nicias and Laches) discuss with Socrates in an attempt to arrive at a definition that covers all instances of this term.

In this episode, a provide a quick introduction to the dialogue, walk through the main ideas, and close with Socrates’ conclusion.

Translations Mentioned:

* Plato Meno and Other Dialogues / Robin Waterfield / Oxford World’s Classics

* Plato Complete Works / Rosamond Kent Sprague / Hackett

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Charmides* is a dialogue of search and the search is for a definition of the Greek word sophrosyne. It’s a word that encompasses the spirit behind the famous sayings at Delphi of “Know Yourself” and “Nothing in Excess.” Translators have rendered it self-control, moderation, prudence, temperance, and discretion.

In this episode, I walk through the attempts by Socrates, Charmides, and Critias to define sophrosyne. It’s a fascinating journey that may not leave us with an exact definition, but that does get us thinking about knowledge and action.

*Quick, embarrassing note: I mistakenly refer to Charmides as Charmenides throughout the podcast episode. I didn’t realize the error until I had finished recording. Mea culpa. I got Parmenides and Charmides mixed up. Any time I say Charmenides, just think Charmides in your head.

Translations Mentioned:

* Plato Meno and Other Dialogues / Robin Waterfield / Oxford World’s Classics

* Plato Complete Works / Rosamond Kent Sprague / Hackett

* Plato Collected Dialogues / Benjamin Jowett / Princeton University Press

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://www.booksoftitans.com/subscribe

I’m closing out my biweekly summer podcast schedule with an episode about my top 5 favorite Loeb Classical Library books. Do you need these if you don’t read Greek or Latin? Why collect these when there are plenty of alternatives? I address these questions and show you my top 5 (with 2 bonus books at the end) in this video podcast recorded in the Books of Titans Library.

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The famous inscription a the Temple of Apollo at Delphi encourages the visitor to “Know Thyself.” Plato’s dialogue Alcibiades is an exploration of that inscription. What does it mean to know oneself? And how does Socrates lead the powerful Alcibiades in this dialogue?

In this episode, I cover Alcibiades and Second Alcibiades by Plato, two relatively short dialogues with wonderful thoughts about virtue, the soul, and the good.

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What is love and what does it have to do with the immortal soul? These are some of the questions addressed in the wide-ranging Phaedrus dialogue by Plato. Similar to other Plato dialogues, this one contains a myth. Perhaps you have heard of the Tripartite Soul. This is one of the dialogues that introduces that idea and it is found within the Myth of the Winged Soul.

In this episode, I talk about how Plato used this myth to talk about ideas like love, desire, immortality, education, and the soul. I then tie that together with a major theme of this reading project, direction. I close out with a, how should I say this, interesting 😬 definition of love from Plato.

Show Notes:

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2026 has been a fun year of reading so far. I’ve read the Bible, a few Plato dialogues, legends of King Arthur, and others. Here’s my mid-year reading review. It’s a great way to learn about books you may want to add to your own reading list. I go through the 20+ books I’re read so far for this year and a little about each one of them. Enjoy!

Reading List (Jan - June 2026)

* The Intertextual Tanakh

* Bibliotheca Vol II: The Latter Prophets

* Bibliotheca Vol III: The Writings

* Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown by Anaïs Mitchell

* Bibliotheca Vol V: The New Testament

* Our Name is Dare by Kev Coleman

* Heraclitus Fragments

* The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and the Sophists

* Early Greek Philosophy

* The Logos of Heraclitus by Eva Brann

* Nero & Paul by Kathie Lee Gifford w/ Brian M. Litfin

* One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

* The Greek Sophists

* The Flowering Hawthorn by Hugh Ross Williamson

* Plato: Complete Works by Plato

* Philebus Plato

* Le Morte Darthur by Sir Thomas Malory

* Galahad and the Grail by Malcolm Guite

* King Arthur and His Knights of The Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green

* The Fall of Arthur by J.R.R. Tolkien

* Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

* The Mirror, the Mask, and the Masterpiece: A Guide to C. S. Lewis’s “Till We Have Faces” by Peter Kreeft

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://www.booksoftitans.com/subscribe

Last episode, I spoke to poet Malcolm Guite about his epic poem, Galahad and the Grail. In this episode, I interview Galahad’s illustrator, Stephen Crotts.

This is my Arthurian Month where I’ve been getting to know the Legends of King Arthur through the works of Sir Thomas Malory, Roger Lancelyn Green, and Malcolm Guite.

In this episode, recorded at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin, TN, I ask Stephen about his design process, how he got into the Arthur stories, and how we should approach his artwork. He also shares a few illustrations from the second book in the series that releases later this year.

I’ve gotten to know Stephen over the past few years. He’s helped me to see how illustrators can reveal parts of the story that authors cannot. When done right, authors and illustrators can create more than the sum of their individual contributions. The two can inform each other and help the reader see and understand in unexpected ways.

Two years ago, as Stephen was preparing for this Arthuriad project, we happened to be in London at the same time and toured the British Museum together. After perusing the Egyptian and Babylonian sections, we looked at the artifacts that bridged the gap between Pagan and Christian Britain, around the time of when the Arthur stories were said to have taken place (400’s AD). Stephen was there for inspiration for that timeframe.

Show Notes:

* Stephen Crotts

* Purchase a copy of Galahad and the Grail from Landmark Booksellers

* Free Reader’s Kit

* Malcolm Guite

* Rabbit Room Publishers

* Landmark Booksellers | Recording Location

* Merlin’s Isle Trailer -

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://www.booksoftitans.com/subscribe

June is my Arthurian Month, a quick dive into the legends of King Arthur. In this episode, I interview author and epic poet Malcolm Guite, whose work here is something special. We trace the Arthurian threads back to Ancient Greece, talk about his collaboration with illustrator Stephen Crotts, and explore the theme of unveiling.

Show Notes:

* Galahad and the Grail by Malcolm Guite

* Purchase a copy from Landmark Booksellers (2nd printing stock arriving in July)

* Free Reader’s Kit

* Rabbit Room Publishers

* Malcolm Guite

* Stephen Crotts

* Landmark Booksellers | Recording Location

* Lifting the Veil Conference | Oct 23 - 24 | Boston, MA

* Merlin’s Isle Trailer -

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://www.booksoftitans.com/subscribe

In this episode, I cover The Birth of Love myth in Plato’s Symposium dialogue. I don’t usually think of Plato as a myth maker, but here he is offering a different spin on the birth of Eros to show how love’s parentage shows our need for Beauty. The ladder of love leads to Plato’s heavenly form of Beauty in a wonderful way. I talk about this myth, Plato’s use of myth, and myth in general in the art of persuasion.

Books / Articles Referenced:

* Plato: Selected Myths / Translation by Catalin Partenie / Oxford World’s Classics

* Hesiod: Theogony / Translation by M.L. West / Oxford World’s Classics

* Plotinus: The Enneads on Love / Translation by Stephen Mackenna / Penguin Classics

* From Plato to Christ / Louis Markos

* God in the Dock: Myth Became Fact / CS. Lewis

* Better Than Sex! / Deacon Harrison Garlick

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What is the good life? This is the question addressed in Philebus, one of Plato’s later dialogues, written in the late 350s BC. Philebus and his counterpart Protarchus (a pupil of Gorgias) argue for pleasure as the highest pursuit and good. Plato (through Socrates) argues for wisdom and knowledge. Can either of these be the sole pursuit of the life well-lived? The goal of the dialogue is to rank pleasure and wisdom.

Plato quickly establishes the necessity for a third option in this quest - a mixture of pleasure and wisdom. It’s impossible to have pleasure without thought and memory and a life solely dedicated to wisdom would be a bit dry. However, pleasure by its nature is unlimited, and therefore cannot be ranked or measured.

Plato then distinguishes between true and false pleasures. True pleasures are those that don’t involve pain (like witnessing a sunset or hearing a beautiful piece of music). False pleasures are those based upon false beliefs (like I’m going to win the lottery), bad measurement/distance (another beer now will hurt in the morning), and relief from pain (showing the absurdity of hedonism that more pain leads to more pleasure).

Plato concludes with a ranking or Ladder of Goods:

* Goodness in Moderation

* In Beauty

* In Intellect and Reason (Wisdom from the beginning)

* Knowledge

* Good/True Pleasures (Pleasure from the beginning, only false pleasures are not allowed)

The key point in this dialogue is that the good life does not consist of getting more of either of the initial pursuits, pleasure or wisdom. Instead, it consists of getting the correct balance between the two.

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In today’s podcast episode, I cover the legend of The Flowering Hawthorn and its connection to the King Arthur legend. It’s a tale that begins with Joseph of Arimathea. He’s the rich man who buried Jesus in his tomb. Tradition holds that Joseph traveled to England many years after the resurrection carrying with him the blood of Jesus, a staff, and possibly, the holy grail. Joseph’s staff began to bud each Christmas Day in Glastonbury, England.

The story is told across the ages by bards, poets, and kings. Glastonbury attracted pilgrims from around the world to come and see this flowering hawthorn.

Is the story true? Or is it just speculation, legend, or tradition? We may never know, but there are enough connection points in this story that make it delightfully intriguing.

I recorded this video episode at the Christ Church meadow in Oxford, England.

Photos

Here are a set of photos sent to me by Stephen Crotts who visited these sites last year. Crotts is the illustrator of the new Arthuriad, an Epic Poem by Malcolm Guite, recounting the King Arthur legend.

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In this podcast episode, I cover the life and ideas of two of the earliest Greek Philosophers, Anaximander & Anaximenes of Miletus. Anaximander is credited with introducing the idea of the First Principle, of which his was the infinite, and Anaximenes, Air.

Books Referenced:

* Early Greek Philosophy - Translation by Jonathan Barnes - Penguin Classics

* The First Philosophers - Translation by Robin Waterfield - Oxford World’s Classics

* Lives of the Eminent Philosophers - Diogenes Laertius - Loeb Classical Library

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://www.booksoftitans.com/subscribe