What I've Been Reading
This post is a list of books that I read in the second quarter of 2024, including Aeschylus, Herodotus, the Odyssey, and American Scripture.
This article is a new installment in a series of “mini reviews” of my reading. Previous installments in the series, along with other compilations, appear below:
2024: First Quarter
2023: Fourth Quarter • Third Quarter • Second Quarter • First Quarter
2022: Fourth Quarter • Third Quarter • Second Quarter • First Quarter
2021: Fourth Quarter • Third Quarter
2020: Complete Reading List • Summer Book Recommendations
2019: Holiday Book Recommendations
2018: Holiday Book Recommendations
Full Listing of All Book Reviews Published Since 2009
The Odyssey
Author: Homer
Year of Publication: ~8th Century BC
Length: 139 pages (Samuel Butler’s translation)
Length: 582 pages (Emily Wilson’s translation)
I read two translations of The Odyssey in April:
Samuel Butler’s translation was first published in 1900 and it is included in Great Books of the Western World, a set of fifty-four books that I acquired earlier this year. Butler’s prose translation is not among the more popular translations of The Odyssey today, but I found it relatively easy to follow. One potential obstacle for some readers will be Butler’s use of the Roman names for the Gods, but this is not an insurmountable obstacle. Butler wrote a fine translation that remains relevant today.
Emily Wilson’s translation was published in 2017. This was my second reading. Wilson translated Homer in verse and she provides the reader with an introduction that includes much context especially useful for the first-time reader. In addition, there are detailed end notes, a glossary, and several maps. I found Wilson’s poetic translation very enjoyable to read and I think first-time readers should opt for her translation. Consider reading the introduction after reading The Odyssey to avoid spoilers.
There’s a large difference in the page counts for the translations, but this is due to the very small type and narrow margins in the Butler translation. The time required to read each translation is roughly the same. It is easier to take notes in the wider margins of the Wilson translation.
Readers who are interested in more of my thoughts on The Iliad and The Odyssey can follow the links below for articles with more details:
The Iliad, April 5, 2024
The Odyssey, May 7, 2024
Homer and His Iliad
Author: Robin Lane Fox
Year of Publication: 2023
Length: 399 pages
After spending a great deal of time reading two translations of The Iliad in March, I decided that it would be interesting to read one of the many contemporary books that provide analysis of Homer and his epic poems. Robin Lane Fox considers The Iliad to be the world’s greatest epic poem. Studying Homer has been one of his lifelong pursuits and this book is the culmination of over fifty years of reading and research.
Fox is not afraid to wade deep into the controversy surrounding Homer. We know very little about Homer, when he lived, and how his poems were composed. Fox believes that there was a historical man named Homer who composed The Iliad in the mid-eighth century BC. Many other scholars prefer a later date for The Iliad and some attribute the work to an evolving oral tradition that took shape over a very long period of time. There is only so much we can know about Homer and the period in which he lived, but we do know that The Iliad was a foundational element of Greek society by the sixth century BC.
Anyone who is interested in Western Civilization must study Ancient Greece, and there is no way to comprehend that society without a firm understanding of Homer’s epic poems. I found Fox’s book useful but it is a “deep dive” into the subject. Emily Wilson’s introductions provide sufficient background to understand Homer so I would only recommend Fox’s book to those who are especially motivated to learn more.
Greek Society
Author: Frank J. Frost
Year of Publication: 1992
Length: 223 pages
Several years ago, I gave away the vast majority of my books in an effort to downsize during a move, something I greatly regret today. Somehow, Greek Society survived the downsizing. I first read this book as a freshman or sophomore in college as part of a class on Western Civilization. An inspection of the book shows that I underlined passages and took notes, but I had no recollection of it when I found it recently.
Greek Society is a well written account that is more like a textbook compared to Edith Hamilton’s The Greek Way, which I reviewed earlier this year. I liked Frost’s chapter on the economic system in Ancient Greece which included information regarding the cost of living. It is difficult to make comparisons, but in general, the cost of necessities such as clothing were very expensive compared to wages. Homeric heroes regularly sacrificed animals for epic banquets but the typical Greek laborer would have seen meat as a luxury.
Jefferson the Virginian
Author: Dumas Malone
Year of Publication: 1948
Length: 470 pages
Dumas Malone devoted decades of his life to producing his six volume biography of Thomas Jefferson. In Jefferson the Virginian, he covers the first four decades of Jefferson’s life up to the point where he leaves for France in 1784. Since this book covers Jefferson’s early life, it provides great insight into his education and the ideological formation of one of the most consequential of the Founding Fathers.
I’ve read all of the volumes of Malone’s biography of Jefferson in the past, and this is the third time that I read Jefferson the Virginian. My motivation for reading this book again was to better understand the period surrounding the writing of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson’s role in crafting the lofty language of the Declaration is beyond serious dispute, but there is no doubt that he operated in an intellectual environment influenced by many other great men who shaped his thinking.
Malone was once regarded as the preeminent Jefferson scholar but has more recently been accused of writing a hagiography. While it is true that Malone had admiration for his subject, it is not true that he covers up the inherent contradictions in Jefferson’s character. However, most of those contradictions appeared later in Jefferson’s life. During his youth and early adulthood, Jefferson’s life was more consistent with his values than it was in old age, when the ravages of time and excessive debts took their inevitable tolls.
Related Article: Thomas Jefferson’s Advice to His Nephew, May 18, 2024.
Theogony and Works and Days
Author: Hesiod
Year of Publication: ~700 BC
Length: 79 pages
Hesiod was a poet who lived in Greece in the eight century BC. We do not know the exact span of his life and it is possible that he was active even before Homer. He lived toward the end of what is known as the Greek Dark Age, a period from 1200 BC to 800 BC when civilization had regressed and the written script of the Mycenaean civilization fell out of use.
Hesiod and Homer composed poetry in the oral tradition, but the introduction of the Phoenician alphabet in Greece allowed their works to be preserved. While Homer is far more celebrated today, Hesiod provides a very interesting window into Ancient Greek civilization on the cusp of revitalization that would last several centuries and culminate in a new golden age.
Read my Review of Works and Days
The Oresteia
Author: Aeschylus
Year of Publication: 458 BC
Length: 335 pages
The Oresteia is comprised of three tragic plays produced by Aeschylus in 458 BC. The trilogy is an undisputed classic that has captivated audiences and readers for twenty-five centuries. Aeschylus assumed a certain level of familiarity with the Greek gods and mythology and this could be taken for granted in a society immersed in these characters since childhood. His plays were produced for a wide audience, not for elite scholars. But as the centuries passed, fewer people retained knowledge of ancient mythology.
I recommend reading The Iliad and The Odyssey before reading the plays, and it helps to have an understanding of mythology. I had a copy of Edith Hamilton’s Mythology by my side while reading the plays.
Read my Review of The Oresteia
American Sphinx
Author: Joseph J. Ellis
Year of Publication: 1998
Length: 307 pages
Joseph Ellis provides the reader with a skeptical interpretation of Thomas Jefferson in this book. His goal was to discover more about Jefferson’s complex personality and character based on several periods during his long life. I first read American Sphinx shortly after it was published and decided to return to it after reading the first volume of Dumas Malone’s six volume biography of Thomas Jefferson. I do not regard American Sphinx as a comprehensive biography of Jefferson because it skips over periods of his life, but it is an interesting study of his character.
Thomas Jefferson had a highly complex relationship with the institution of slavery, and this has been his most significant weak spot when it comes to assessments of his character. One of the reasons Jefferson receives so much modern-day criticism is that he was acutely aware of the moral bankruptcy of slavery during his lifetime, in contrast to many of his Southern contemporaries who saw few, if any, moral quandaries. Naturally, we hold someone who understood the moral dilemma to a higher standard, but it is still important to view Jefferson in the context of his times. Ellis is skeptical but he tries to be fair.
The Mountain Shadow
Author: Gregory David Roberts
Year of Publication: 2016
Length: 871 pages
I read Shantaram in the second quarter of 2023 and briefly wrote about it. The Mountain Shadow is the sequel set approximately two years after the conclusion of Shantaram. Both novels are at least partly based on the author’s own life after escaping from prison in Australia and migrating to Bombay in the 1980s. The main protagonist regularly engages in criminal activity and even joins the local mafia, but unlike most of the gang members, he maintains a moral compass.
Most of the books I read this quarter were very “serious” in terms of the time and effort required on the part of the reader. In contrast, The Mountain Shadow is light reading that takes no particular effort. It is the equivalent of sitting down to relax by watching Netflix, except you are engaging with the written word. This is not meant as any offense to Gregory David Roberts. He is an outstanding writer who can keep a reader engaged over hundreds of pages, and that’s a rare skill.
Although Shantaram and The Mountain Shadow can be read separately as stand-alone works, I would suggest reading Shantaram first. Readers who enjoy it can proceed to read The Mountain Shadow which continues the story and ties up some loose ends that were unresolved at the end of Shantaram. It is difficult to say much more about these books without giving away elements of the plot.
American Scripture
Author: Pauline Maier
Year of Publication: 1998
Length: 288 pages
In American Scripture, Pauline Maier provides an excellent account of the conditions leading up to the drafting of the declaration, how the document was prepared by Thomas Jefferson and amended by his colleagues, and how Americans viewed the declaration at the time and in the decades that followed.
I think that “scripture” is an accurate description of the Declaration of Independence, although obviously this is secular “scripture.” That point is important in a country like the United States without an official state religion. Every country needs to have a set of core beliefs shared by the vast majority of citizens or it will disintegrate. For many societies, that common set of beliefs is delivered by religion. In the United States, our common beliefs come from the Founding Fathers.
Read my review of American Scripture
Prometheus Bound and Other Plays
Author: Aeschylus
Year of Publication: 5th Century BC
Length: 160 pages
Given my experience with reading The Oresteia, discussed earlier in this article, I approached the four other surviving plays of Aeschylus with some trepidation and I expected to be similarly challenged. To my surprise, I found Prometheus Bound, The Supplicants, Seven Against Thebes, and The Persians far easier to follow during my first reading. These plays were translated by Philip Vellacott who also wrote a brief introduction.
I am not sure if it was easier to read this book because the plays are themselves easier or because I gained experience reading Aeschylus. For readers new to Aeschylus, it might be easier to start with this book, although I do not feel strongly about the sequencing.
Read my review of Prometheus Bound
The Histories
Author: Herodotus
Year of Publication: 5th Century BC
Length: 849 pages
I finished reading Herodotus just a few days ago. I plan to write a longer article about The Histories in the near future because it left quite an impression. I diverted from reading the Greek tragedians to Herodotus because I was intrigued by The Persians, one of the plays of Aeschylus, which made reference to the great Greek victory over Persia in 480/479 BC. Herodotus wrote about far more than the Persian Wars, but the Greek triumph was the culmination of his work.
I would highly recommend reading The Landmark edition of The Histories, which is the version I have linked to. Edited by Robert B. Strassler, this book provides an enormous amount of supplementary material that is crucial for the modern reader who does not have an academic background. In contrast, the version of The Histories included in Great Books of the Western World, provides almost no supplementary material at all.
In addition to an excellent introduction, every page of The Histories includes numerous footnotes (rather than endnotes) that are right on the same page and very easy to refer to. There are summaries of the contents of each of the hundreds of small chapters right next to the main text. Perhaps best of all, there are hundreds of maps throughout the book, focusing on the events happening on the same page or nearby pages. Some readers might find the maps repetitive, since they cover the same regions again and again, but it was so much easier to follow the events with this approach, especially toward the end of the book when Herodotus writes about troop movements and battles.
I will soon publish an article that goes into much more detail.
New Testament Study Bible
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Year of Publication: 2010
Length: 521 pages
I read the New Testament in small installments over the course of the second quarter. This version of the New Testament includes a large number of notes on each page as well as introductions for each of the books. The Ignatius Press presents the Roman Catholic view of the New Testament, which I understand differs in material ways from the view of the Protestants. In the second half of the year, I am reading the ESV Study Bible which covers both the Old and New Testaments with commentary from a Protestant perspective.
All Christian Bibles provide interpretation of the Old Testament as a foreshadowing of the New Testament. In 2025, I am considering reading The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Atler. This would be an exercise in understanding the Old Testament from the Jewish perspective, something I have not done. As I explained earlier this year, the Bible must be considered one of the Great Books of the Western World whether viewed as a religious text or not. I enjoy reading the Bible and recommend taking the time to know it. It is very hard to fully understand Western society and history without knowing the Bible very well.
I am often asked how I am able to read so many books. I won’t deny that the reading presented here is time consuming. However, it is not some Herculean task.
I read over 5,000 pages during the second quarter. That works out to about 55 pages per day. I am not a particularly fast reader and I estimate that I spend between two and a half hours per day, on average. It obviously depends on the type of book. I can get through far more pages of something like The Mountain Shadow in an hour compared to Aeschylus or Herodotus. But the main point is that I am not cloistered in some monastery, never going outside and reading all of my waking hours.
For those who would like to read more, I would suggest starting with a dedicated hour per day. It is surprising how much can be accomplished through a sustained habitual effort. Most people waste at least an hour per day on television or social media. It is all about priorities.
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