I decided to take /lit/'s advice and started reading the Greeks this year. I'm so happy I decided to. Not only did I thoroughly enjoy these works, I felt like I learned a lot about history, culture, myth, and the human condition in the process. I was challenged and felt like I grew.This year, I readThe Iliad (Lattimore) 564 (with notes)The Odyssey (Fagles) 514 (with notes)Herodotus (Landmark edition) 878! (with notes and appendices)Thucydides (Hammond) 685 (with notes)Sophocles (Fagles) 407 (with essays and notes)Hesiod (Lombardo) 103 (with notes)Totaling 3,151 pages, which was great for me.My favorite book (as well as the longest) was Herodotus' "Histories". The Landmark Edition made it all the more enjoyable to read with its notes and maps. At times I felt like a kid cosplaying as Indiana Jones, trying to wrap my mind around all of the information Herodotus presented. I absolutely loved the experience of reading this book for the first time.My least favorite was the Iliad. As much as I love lists of ships and chapters upon chapters of random side characters being killed... I just found it to be kind of a slog. The Odyssey was significantly more enjoyable.The hardest was Thucydides. I struggled to get a feel for his pacing and his prose. I think my average pace with him for the first half was about 10 pages per hour. Thank god for footnotes and Google. But by the end of his book, I did come to appreciate him, and I hold the speeches and dialogues in incredibly high esteem. I can see why Pericles' Funeral Speech is so revered, among others.How was your year? What books did you read and how did they affect you?
>>24984094You may have gotten filtered by Lattimore then. He's definitely a bit more challenging than Fagles. In any case, I would suggest re-reading the Iliad in a year or two. Don't read it as if it was a modern novel. Focus on the rhythm and the beauty of the text. Lattimore's Iliad really allows you to feel the momentum. The Greeks had no notion of "random side characters" in the sense that we do today.I'd also suggest the two other major playwrights, Euripides (esp. Medea) and Aeschylus (The Oresteia). Then try some Greek philosophy. Good job, anon.Once you're done with the Greeks, it's time to Resume with the Romans.
>>24984338>>24984094i would suggest reading what you actually want to read. as you can clearly see by the sort of people on this board who push this flowchart, it doesn’t result in a cultured or refined person. all those greats lose a lot of their power when you come to them through meme chart rigidity. shakespeare said fall to them as you find your stomach serves you, no profit grows where is no pleasure taken.
I read a lot of /x/ shitRadio Free AlbemuthThe Crypto TerrestrialsThe Teachings of Don Juan (audiobook)Architects of the Underworld The night the earth stood stillThe day after roswell (audiobook)Hollywood vs the flying saucersMessengers of Deception PKD was a rare disappoint. I was expecting a more complex storyline or twists. It's pretty straightforward and linear. Don Juan is so bad that this was my 5th attempt struggling through it. I had to resort to the audio version just to power through to the end. Started the second book but dropped it hard. The Crypto Terrestrials is praised by people who knew Mac Toines but it's overrated. The only books worth a damn were Architects of the Underworld and Hollywood vs the Flying Saucers by Bruce Rux. Interesting thesis with compelling arguments to back it up. Few books have altered my world view, or at least made my certainty wobble a little bit. Currently 70 pages into the Illuminatus! Trilogy. I'm done with UFO shit for now and will read more RAW and General Semantics in 2026. I also got Pound's Cantos, but that's not really a book book.
>>24984338Thank you for the Roman recommendations. I actually have few of these on my list (ironically enough I was given Mary Beard's "SPQR" as a Christmas gift this year so maybe that's a sign lol).I'm actually about to start on Aeschylus next. I have the David Greene/Lattimore collection that has The Suppliant Maidens, The Persians, the Seven Against Thebes, and Prometheus Bound. I know the Oresteia is his most popular work, so I should probably read that as well. Euripides is next after that, then the Pro-Socratics, and finally Plato and Aristotle. I've really enjoyed getting to learn about Ancient Greece this last year, and I feel like with all of this supplementary reading, I should be fully prepped to actually understand Plato when the time comes.>>24984350I did actually form my list from picrel lol. I do have some serious beef with some aspects about it though. After Hamilton's "Mythology" I think I would actually put Hesiod next, then Sophocles (The Three Theban Plays deal with material that's mythically pre-Homer), then Barry Strauss' Trojan War, then Homer, and then Herodotus and Thucydides, and the rest. Also, I think the Landmark Edition of Herodotus is the best way to experience him, and Martin Hammond's translation of Thucydides (with the notes) seemed to make him more readable to me. My 2 cents.>>24984364Sorry to hear about PKD and Don Juan. Both that author and that text are so revered by the internet, it makes it all the more disappointing they fell flat.Good luck with Illuminatus. I read it in high school, so maybe I didn't get what RAW was going for, but I felt like it was just a bit too incoherent for my tastes (which I guess is kind of the point?). Maybe I should've read it in the 80s on a few tabs instead. I still maintain Prometheus Rising is probably RAW's best book, even if some of the information is outdated.I can relate to being disappointed by an /x/ though. I tried to read Agrippa this year and got bummed when he spent a good chunk of Book I talking about the virtues of weasels and magnetic rocks. Happens I guess.
>>24984398>After Hamilton's "Mythology" I think I would actually put Hesiod next, then Sophocles (The Three Theban Plays deal with material that's mythically pre-Homer), then Barry Strauss' Trojan War, then Homer, and then Herodotus and Thucydides, and the rest. Alsostop talking you’re making me ill.
>>24984350Wrong.
>>24984094Awful year, reading wise. I had a good start, but after losing my job I read almost nothing. Yesterday I couldn't even finish what was supposed to be my last book of the year.
it was a pretty slow year by my normal standardsi would like to explain the really bad books as ones forced on me by my book group but i also got them to read faulkner so it evens out
>>24984094Nice! What did you think of Sophokles? I'm a big Euripides fan, so that's my next recommendation.
>>24984906Nice, what's your favorite Euripides? I love Alcestis
>>24984927I'd probably go Orestes or Hekabe. Or Herakles. They're just so good.
>>24984979>>24984927Orestes is great but please read The Oresteia by Aeschylus before
>>24984398Yes, I really enjoyed reading Prometheus Rising. So far Illumantus! is everything I hoped for: it's completely fucked up and jarring. It keeps jumping perspectives and timelines and doesn't always give you a warning that it's doing it. Heavy Joycean and Faulkner influence. Good fun.
>>24985032I'm not OP and I have read the Oresteia. Agamemnon and Libation Bearers are good but I can't take Eumenides seriously at all lol. It just reads like a bad courtroom soap.
>>24984094A lot of dunsany, weird tales, Jack London's sea wolf and Dracula
>>24984842care to elaborate?
