Erik Rostad (Books of Titans)

2025 is Year 8 of the Books of Titans reading project and Year 3 of reading through The Immortal Books: 2025 Reading List - books.booksoftitans.com/2025-reading-l… The Immortal Books - books.booksoftitans.com/immortal-books/ Join my Monthly Short Great Books Reading Group - books.booksoftitans.com/short-great-bo… Podcast - books.booksoftitans.com/books-of-titan… Substack - booksoftitans.com

I'm currently spending some time with the Presocratics. Here are three books, four concepts, and twelve philosophers I'm focusing on - booksoftitans.com/p/the-presocra…

Recent book haul.

@renegadesilicon What should I read from Mesopotamia?

@booksoftitans You have to go back to Mesopotamia -- it's oblique. But to understand the presocratics (and what they were reacting to), you have to have the context of the dominant intellectual architecture of the Bronze Age, going back another 3000 years. Will listen to this with interest

Latest podcast episode is up. I’m starting a series where I go through the early Greek philosophers. My purpose is to better understand Plato and the philosophers he is referencing. booksoftitans.com/p/heraclitus

Morning reading: Heraclitus by Martin Heidegger. I’m reading the lecture of “Logic: Heraclitus’s Doctrine of the Logos” in an attempt to better learn what the word “logos” encompassed when Heraclitus used it. This book is a bit difficult to read for me but I’m going to give it a go.

I suffer from an incurable medical condition called Rabbit-Trail-Itis. You can learn more about the disease here - booksoftitans.com/p/rabbit-trail…

Morning Reading: The Logos of Heraclitus by Eva Brann. Following a rabbit trail to learn more about Heraclitus’ use of the term logos and how that connects to the logos John used in the Gospel of John about Jesus.

Happy 250th Anniversary, Adam Smith’s THE WEALTH OF NATIONS, published March 9, 1776. Some time ago I spoke at @AdamSmithHouse in Edinburgh and held in my hands a first edition of WN. I’ve been studying Mr. Smith for a long time but this was a highlight! #WealthOfNations250 @aier

Spent the morning reading about the early Greek philosopher Parmenides in these two books all while drinking absurd amounts of coffee ☕️.

Landmark Booksellers is hosting some incredible events this month Kathie Lee Gifford - 3/16 Shannon Bream @ShannonBream - 3/17 John Bevere @JohnBevere - 3/19 Malcolm Guite @malcolmguite - 2/25 Check them out - landmarkbooksellers.com/calendar/

@AmateurReader @ErnestBoehm Yeah, I bought the wrong Diogenes book. I got Diogenes the Cynic but meant to buy Diogenes Laertius and his Lives of the Eminent Philosophers.

@booksoftitans @ErnestBoehm Not from this Diogenes. That's Diogenes Laertius, author of "Lives of the Philosophers".

Morning reading: The First Philosophers. I’m picking up where I left off with this one last year. I had read through the Presocratics and today I started with the Sophist. I read about Protagoras of Abdera, a philosopher most famous for his relativistic saying that “man is the measure of all things” and for being the founder of the Sophistic movement. Plato and Aristotle confront his ideas in their writings.

@KateStantonSing I really enjoyed it and we had a great discussion about it at the book club.

@booksoftitans What did you think of The Overcoat? It’s my favorite. 💔Inspired Dostoevsky.

The next story for the Short Great Books reading group is Nikolai Gogol’s The Overcoat. We meet on Mondays at Landmark Booksellers in Franklin TN. This will be my first time reading Gogol. I plan to read the story twice over the weekend in preparation. Have your read any Gogol before?

Episode 281 of the Books of Titans podcast is up and I cover my straight read-through of the Bible to kick off 2026. booksoftitans.com/p/281-the-bible

I’m using these three books to learn all I can about Heraclitus. Instead of covering these books on the podcast, my plan is to cover each of the main early Greek philosophers individually, starting with Heraclitus.

@ErnestBoehm Yeah, I keep seeing his name pop up in these fragments of the early philosophers. Seems like we have much of what we have because of him.

@booksoftitans Couldn't pass up recommending Diogenes, his influence on Socrates and Plato is overlooked.

@ErnestBoehm One of these days I’m going to send you a bill for all of these books I’ve purchased at your suggestion 😉

@booksoftitans One of the finest books , Diogenes really makes one think !

Quick reading project update for what’s in store over the next few months. It involves Presocratics, Sophists, and podcasts, oh my.

@ErnestBoehm Brooks Haxton

@booksoftitans Who is the translator is that from the Seven Greeks

Heraclitus not messing around.