Summer of Classics

Thinking Man Book Club's Epic Return

There are books that we may never read. With a finite amount of time left in this life, there is absolutely no way we’ll be able to read everything we’ll ever want to read. I’ve seen 28 years go by in an instant, all while my reading list has grown to staggeringly unrealistic heights. Last year I released a list of 105 books I want to read before I die. Since then, I ended up reading twenty-one books. Only three of those books (A Scanner Darkly, Timeline, and For Whom the Bell Tolls) were on that list.

Many books will forever be left on to-be-read. Usually, those books are the epics, the ones that no one actually believes they’ll get to. I’m talking about books like The Bible and The Hermetica. As much as I’d love to read them, I just really can’t imagine ever getting around to it. For a long time, the epic poems of Homer fell into that category.

Iliad and Odyssey. Maybe you read them in high school. Maybe you read them in college. Maybe you read them in Ancient Greek. Maybe you post comments on reddit explaining why your translator is better than everybody else’s. I’ve never read those epic poems, but I have always wanted to. I remember being a teenager and imagining how much of a slog to get through they must be. By the time I was in my early twenties and had grown an appreciation for the finer things, I realized I’d eventually need to get to them. So, I bought a few copies, worrying more about which translation to read rather than actually getting around to read them. After getting my hands on them, they sat for a long time.

My grandfather died last week. For whatever reason, his death inspired me to finally pick up Iliad as translated by Stanley Lombardo. Maybe I wanted to prove to his spirit looking down at me that his grandson was as smart as he hopefully believed I was. Maybe his passing reminded me how short life truly is. It reminded me to stop putting things off, because one day there won’t be a tomorrow. Whatever the case may be, it gave me the idea to bring back the book club.

Summer of 2025 will be Thinking Man’s Summer of Classics. The book club will be reading Homer’s Iliad in June, Homer’s Odyssey in July, and Virgil’s Aeneid in August. I’ll be reading Stanley Lombardo’s translations of Iliad and Odyssey, and Shadi Bartsch’s translation of Aeneid. If you have recommendations on translations, feel free to share. If you’ve already read them, I’d love to hear your thoughts along the way. If you’ve always wanted to read them but can’t get through the work, you can live vicariously through me on my quest to finally put a check mark next to these titles.

Next week we’ll check in with the first 7 “books” of Iliad. If we keep it to 1 book/day we should have no problem finishing the whole book within the month.

This is my chance, our chance, to be held accountable. To finally say we’ve read these epic works of Greek and Roman literature. It truly will be a summer to remember.

Thanks for reading. Feel free to share your own list—I could always use a few more book recommendations.

If you enjoyed this post and would like to support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Feeling generous? You can also buy me a coffee (or a book).