My dear friend Hector Alexander and I are embarking on a new book club.
We’ve chosen 12 books to read. One a month for the next year.
Why, you might be wondering? Good question.
I heard some wonderful advice recently:
Read old books when you’re young, and young books when you’re old.
Whilst still clinging to my youth, I feel now is the time to read more of the classics.
We’ve gone for iconic books, many of them famously impenetrable. A good challenge for a couple of dyslexics.
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The Books:
Ulysses by James Joyce (August ’24)
The Odyssey by Homer (September ’24)
Moby Dick, or The Whale by Herman Melville (October ’24)
Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky (November ’24)
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (December ’24)
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (January ’25)
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (February ’25)
The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (March ’25)
Hamlet by William Shakespeare (April ’25)
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (May ’25)
Bleak House by Charles Dickens (June ’25)
*Guest Book* (July ’25)
I’ll write a post on each, as will Hec A., and publish on the first of the following month.
How hard can it be?
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A note on diversity: I’m painfully aware at the lack of diversity of these authors. For those worried about my resulting development: I truly appreciate the concern, but don’t fear. I can assure you my mother (who subscribes to this) keeps me very accountable on this point. With her help I’ll read a diverse selection alongside these 12.
On Reading
A word on reading, before we kick off.
Reading has had a dramatic impact on my life in recent years.
I got off to a slow start; still fairly illiterate at 10, and a light reader at best through my teens. It’s only in the last six years that I’ve learnt to love reading and now it’s a favourite pastime.
Fiction and non-fiction play different roles, I find.
Non-fiction is great for developing your mental models of the world; understanding life in a depth that you just can’t get from a tweet. It’s the act of spending hours and hours and hours with a subject, pondering it in the background whilst you read.
Fiction, on the other hand, gives an amazing window into the human condition. To see a world through so many different pairs of eyes helps develop empathy and understanding of what it means to be human.
Reading, hand in hand with meditation, has helped develop my equanimity, concentration, and dare I say wisdom (albeit from a low base).
I find I’m a better person the more I read; kinder and more present, and, I suspect, better at my job.
Off we go
The purpose of this book club is two fold:
Accountability. This isn’t the first challenge H and I have started, and they often fizzle out. This is a public commitment to do a year.
To gain from these books. I find it’s the longer, tougher reads that I get the most from. They stay on far longer in the memory. Many these books are famously difficult, but famously rewarding if conquered. Let’s find out.
First up is Ulysses. Perhaps the most impenetrable of the lot. I made it through about 20 pages, on a previous attempt, before losing steam. This time, I’m sure, will be different.
If you fancy joining in then please do! All welcome, and drop me a reply if you are. Would love to hear from you.
I’ll begin this very evening.
A Final Thought 💡
"The best books... are those that tell you what you know already."
– George Orwell