January 1, 2025 • 39 mins
Erik Rostad joins us once again for his third annual appearance on the Scott Townsend Show, bringing fresh insights from his impressive reading project. Since 2017, Erik has been on a mission to read 52 books a year, but his journey has grown to encompass nearly 200 authors, exploring timeless works that have shaped literature and thought. He shares his passion for epic texts like those by Homer, Egyptian writings, and the Epic of Gilgamesh, and how these classics are interwoven with Greek tragedies and philosophical musings. Get ready to be inspired by Eric's plans to explore the works of Plato and Aristotle to unearth the deep cultural connections and timeless impact of these foundational texts.
We take a fascinating look at how multiple readings of books or movies can uncover new layers of meaning and enjoyment. Eris shares the story of someone who delved into "Theo of Golden" by Alan Levi five times, each for a different purpose, and how watching "Up" 31 times revealed fresh details and emotions. Our discussion touches on the communal reading practices of the past, where sharing books aloud enriched the experience, and how such practices can enhance our connection to literature today. Erik also shares his personal strategies for retaining information, like underlining and making notes, which help him revisit and remember key insights from his reading adventures.
Our conversation rounds off with a focus on the cultural significance of foundational texts like the Iliad, encouraging readers to engage with these works through reading groups and podcasts. Erik advocates for reading original works over derivative ones, emphasizing the unique insights they provide. He recounts his own experience with Seth Godin's book on strategy, noting its non-linear structure and the standout insights that make it worthwhile. As we look forward to 2025, we reflect on the value of reading great literature and the exciting plans for future reading initiatives and projects, offering a heartfelt farewell and holiday wishes to our listeners.
contact info for Erik Rostad - http://www.booksoftitans.com
► Subscribe to The Scott Townsend Show YouTube channel --- https://bit.ly/3iV8sOT
The Scott Townsend Show Merchandise https://teespring.com/stores/tsts-2
Resources and Links
--------------------------------------------
My contact info:
LinkedIn https://bit.ly/2ZZ4qwe
Twitter https://bit.ly/3enLDQa
Facebook https://bit.ly/2Od4ItO
Instagram https://bit.ly/2ClncWl
Send me a text: 918-397-0327
Executive Producer: Ben Townsend
Creative Consultant: Matthew Blue Townsend
Shot with a 1080P Webcam with Microphone, https://amzn.to/32gfgAu
Samson Technologies Q2U USB/XLR Dynamic Microphone Recording and Podcasting Pack
https://amzn.to/3TIbACe
Voice Actor: Britney McCullough
Logo by Angie Jordan https://blog.angiejordan.com/contact/
Theme Song by Androzguitar https://www.fiverr.com/inbox/androzguitar
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
so, yeah, I've been following along, listening to
your uh podcast and enjoying theuh the greek the trip through
greece nice and uh, yeah, solook forward to talking about it
here, letting them, lettinglisteners, share your, your
journey uh, let's see anythingelse phones turned down.
(00:27):
You got water, plenty of drinkthere.
Like I said, if you need tostop, start over, um, think
about what you're going to say,that's fine.
I can always edit it out.
The.
The audio will be edited, uh,the video version.
I'm going to try to just leaveit unedited, um, and uh post it
(00:48):
on youtube, um, and thenafterwards I'll send you the
media kit with all the links andpictures and whatnot thumbnails
.
You can do whatever you wantwith those.
Okay, all right, so you'reready yeah, let's do it hey this
is scott Scott Townsend.
Welcome back to the ScottTownsend Show.
And today I have with merecurring guest for the third
(01:09):
time in as many years, EricRostad.
Eric, how's it going?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's great.
How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Great Good.
Yeah, it's a tradition here atthe Scott Townsend Show to have
Eric come in on Decembers andhe's got an interesting project.
If you've listened before, youknow he's got a reading project
that he does year to year and inDecember we get together and
(01:37):
talk about what he's read, whathe's learned, what he's done,
what's good, what's bad, youknow, just kind of giving us a
year-end review of his readingproject.
So, yeah, I'm going to turn itback over to you, but before I
do that, what I always askeverybody is what did you have
for breakfast this morning?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I had a pretty big breakfast, so I always start
with coffee, and then I hadthree eggs, and then I had a
sandwich with um, peanut butterand honey that's my favorite A
little bananas in there as well,and then, uh, my daughter's
favorite thing right now iscinnamon rolls, so my wife made
(02:16):
those, and so I usually don'thave that much, but I had a
cinnamon roll to top it all off.
So, and an orange, cause my, uh, my colleague at the bookstore
just got us all oranges, and soI had an orange as well.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, that's great.
So, uh, fill us in this 2024.
Uh, you're, you know, from yearto year you do different
reading projects and it seemslike this one spilled over from
the year before.
Maybe, uh, I'll kind of let letyou go in to give us what was
your plan for 2024 and how didit go.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, well, yeah, and in thinking back that this is
our third time talking, thefirst time we talked would have
been right at the point where Iwas making a shift in my reading
project.
So I started it in 2017 as away to read more books, but also
to put in some experiments tobetter remember what I was
reading.
So I didn't just want to read abunch of books and then forget
(03:13):
them all.
So the first six years of theproject so 2017 through 2022, I
would just make different listsof 52 books and then attempt to
get through all those in a year.
And between 2022 and 2023, Idecided to start reading the
(03:35):
great books.
And so, for anyone who's notaware of the great books,
there's a bunch of differentlists out there that are just
the books that have stood thetest of time and the books that
have kind of informed all theother books, and so there's
different let's say how do youdefine?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
how do you define a great book?
I think you know like I thinkStuart Little's a good, great
book, but it doesn't necessarily.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, so let me get into that in just a minute.
So I went, I looked at allthese different lists and then I
made a list of like the two,roughly 200 of the ones that I
wanted to read, and instead ofit being 200 great books, it's
more 200 great authors, justbecause I don't want to just
read one book by Shakespeare, Iwant to read a bunch of his
(04:22):
plays.
I don't want to just read onething from Plato, I want to read
a bunch of them.
And so it'll end up being morekind of like 200 authors.
And, um, yeah, at first Ididn't really know.
Uh, back to your question.
I didn't really know what agreat book meant, other than
that it just was really good andand had had had an impact.
(04:43):
But what?
What I've, what I've started tosee, is that the great books
talk to each other.
And so, for instance, I startedreading Homer last year, and I
started with the Iliad, and thenI read the Odyssey, and and
then in this year 2024, I gotinto the Greek tragedies.
And what happens at a lot ofthese Greek tragedies is that
(05:04):
they are, they're commenting onor referencing things that
happen in Homer.
So there's there's this directconnection where they're,
they're kind of riffing on whatHomer has introduced.
And then this next year, 2025,is when I'll start getting into
the philosophers like Plato andAristotle, and for what I
understand of them is thatthey're also taking ideas from
(05:28):
Homer and they're talking aboutthem more in a philosophical
manner and in the tragediesyou're kind of dealing with the
ideas that have been brought upin Homer in a tragic situation,
but one where it's kind of likeyou're damned if you do, you're
damned if you don't, and so itjust puts you in this impossible
situation.
But one where it's kind of likeyou're damned if you do, you're
damned if you don't, and so itjust puts you in this impossible
(05:48):
situation.
But looking at whether issuesof morality, questions, deep
questions like what should youdo in a given circumstance, but
with these tragedies it's justlike these impossible
circumstances.
So you really get kind of aworking out of what.
What does this look like?
What does it mean?
What does it mean to say thisor to have this ideal?
(06:11):
But then what does that looklike in real life?
So yeah, the great books.
So then you know, going furtheron, st Augustine writes
Confessions, but writes it inthe structure of the Odyssey.
Nietzsche writes a book abouttragedies.
He's referring to the Greektragedies, and so that's kind of
(06:32):
.
This connection point with thegreat books is that they're
speaking to those ideas.
So I'll see, as I go along, ifthere's kind of these individual
books along the way that juststand alone without referencing.
(06:54):
But I have a feeling that a lotof the books on these lists are
going to be ones that arereferencing one another.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
So you went back.
How far back did you do you go?
Did you go regarding the greatbooks?
Uh, I know you do the Bibleonce a year at the beginning of
the year.
Uh, how far back do you did yougo with these?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, so when I, when I made my initial list, it I
think it was around 1800 BC,which would be the Epic of
Gilgamesh I think it's aroundthat timeframe.
And then I started reading theEpic of Gilgamesh and one of the
translations I used was by aguy named Sophus Hell, and as I
(07:37):
was reading Gilgamesh he cameout with a translation of an
even older work by a femaleauthor from 2300 BC and her name
is in Hedawana and she lived inthe city of Ur, which is where
Abram was called out of in theBible.
But she was a priestess and shewent around and wrote about the
(07:59):
different gods and the differenttemples in the city of Ur and
it's really interesting.
And so that kind of became thenew, oldest book.
We just found the tablets thather poetry was written on within
the last 50 or 100 years, soit's relatively new where we
(08:21):
found these tablets, and thenthey were translated and then
this is the first complete worksreleased by her and it was just
released last year.
So the oldest one now is 2300BC, which puts that roughly 1500
years before Homer.
So a lot of the great bookslists will start with Homer, and
(08:41):
rightly so, in the sense ofjust the impact that Homer has
had.
I like to go back a littlefurther with works from Egypt,
gilgamesh, and then this inHedawana as well.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Right In the 2024 Reading Project.
Are there any books in thislist that surprised you?
Any that you thought were likewow, that was like really
awesome or that wasn't quite asgreat as I thought it was going
to be, was there?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
any surprises.
Yeah, I'll do one of one.
Of each one a surprise, andthen one not, not as good as I
thought it would be.
So, um uh, uh, let me justpreface the good one.
So I, I read the Iliad last yearfor the first time in my life,
but I wanted to read the Iliadand the Odyssey twice just to
make sure I got the story downand all that.
(09:30):
And so my second reading of theIliad occurred in March of this
past year and I just love it.
I ended up reading it one moretime and I led a reading group
on it later this year.
So I think, just uh, overall,the Iliad is, it's, it's my new
favorite book.
I just, anytime I would pick itup, whether it was I only had a
(09:52):
few minutes to read or like anhour to read, I would just get
something like this isincredible, you know, even just
like one page would just be astop, uh, astonishing.
And so I, I love the Iliad, Ithink the thing.
So partly the Iliad in terms ofwhat surprised me.
(10:15):
But secondly, after the Iliad,I read this book called Greek
Epic Fragments, and what it didwas go into fragments of works
that we don't have the full workand what was contained in that
book was something called theEpic Trojan Cycle and that was
made up of eight works, and theIliad and the Odyssey are two of
the eight works, but there areworks number two and seven, and
(10:38):
so there is a work before theIliad, not necessarily written
by written by Homer, and in factthey probably weren't written
by Homer, but there was thisgroup of eight works that the
Greeks would have known.
They would have known all thestories in these we only have
two of them, um, but that justfascinated me.
Like we're missing six of theseworks.
(10:58):
We kind of have a rough ideawhat was in each of those, cause
someone in the ancient time dida review of or kind of a
summary of each of the works.
Uh, so we, we know what'sinside and we know some of the
myths and all that and thestories from from other works.
But I just I had no idea that,uh, that these, that the alien,
(11:19):
the odyssey, were part of this,this, this grand work of like
eight works together that madeup the epic Trojan cycle, and
just coming across that was wasreally interesting to me, so
that, on the good side that was,that was a big surprise.
On the the hard side I'll saythat, not like it's not a bad
(11:39):
book, because it's it's one ofthe great books, but just one
that I had trouble withpersonally was Pindar's Odes,
and this is written after thetime of Homer.
But this Pindar, who's theauthor, wrote these kind of odes
or songs or almost like praisesof different Greek athletes,
(12:02):
and then he tied in a lot ofmythology.
But the way I describe it isyou almost need like a master's
degree level of understanding ofGreek mythology to understand
what he's talking about, causeit just goes so deep and I'm
maybe at like the elementaryschool level of understanding
Greek mythology so it just somuch of it was over my head.
It just it.
(12:23):
I'm glad I read it and there'ssome neat stories in there, but
um, that was one I just had alot of trouble with reading this
year.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
You know when you, uh , are you redoing this for
pleasure or are you doing thisto learn?
Is there a balance there?
Is this like you sit back andyou just enjoy reading about the
?
You know, elliot and homer andthe odyssey, or is this a way to
grow, develop, learn?
(12:53):
Is there, is it one, either oneor both, or what's the balance
there?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
yeah, uh, I think probably at first it was more.
I just I didn't want to die nothaving read these works.
Just they're great.
And over the last 20 years I'vebeen buying these books with
the hope that I would somedayread them.
But I never really had a planto read them.
It was just more of like a hopeand maybe some of that comes
(13:23):
from having read a couple books,like 20 years ago that would be
considered great books, andjust reading them and thinking
these are incredible, like these, these are amazing.
So now that I'm, I made a planto actually get through them.
At first it may have been kindof more of a I want to read them
(13:44):
, just get through them, but themore I'm reading them now I
would consider 2024 my best yearof reading, in the sense of it
being the most enjoyable year ofreading and I would say 2023
was that before I got to 2024.
I read a lot of the Greektragedies this year and each one
(14:06):
I would go to, each differenttragedy I would go to.
I was like this this is justincredible.
And so the enjoyment levels ofreading were just off the charts
.
I mean, I, I it truly was themost enjoyable year of reading
I've ever had.
And so, yeah, maybe it startedout the one way, but like it is,
it is becoming so enjoyable.
(14:28):
Like I, I love reading.
When, when I reread the Iliad,I loved that when I led the
reading group on the Iliad, itwas just fascinating to hear, uh
, people's views on the Iliad,and a lot of them it was their
first time reading it, so justkind of hearing first ideas of
what they're coming across andall that.
So, yeah, it's become like justan absolute pleasure and joy of
(14:52):
reading these works.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I hear the phrase.
It read like a Greek tragedy.
You know, the Greek tragedy.
I guess that just must be theworst that can ever happen.
Is a Greek tragedy that?
I guess that?
Just must be the worst that canever happen as a Greek tragedy,
that bad I mean yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
In some of them the levels of suffering of the main
characters are off the charts.
But yeah, I, but that phrase,what you, what you say, like
reads like a Greek tragedy,maybe in in just how bad it is,
I guess.
Or like in this, like how badit is for the people involved in
the story.
Um, but the the storiesthemselves are are fascinating
(15:35):
and they're relatively short.
I mean, you can read throughone in two to three hours, uh.
But they reference so manydifferent parts of the Greek
mythology or they referencedifferent parts of Homer to
where it's just fun to see howthey do it.
The audience surely would haveknown what was going to happen
in each of these stories, and alot of the times we know what
(15:58):
has happened just from otherGreek works or just movies we've
seen or all that.
So part of it, it's like goingto watch titanic, like we know
what's going to happen, yeah, uh, so it's kind of up to the
movie producer in that case tomake it interesting and to tell
different stories going on theway.
So that's kind of a lot ofwhat's happening in the greek
(16:19):
tragedies.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Like the audience would have known what was going
to happen if you had to pick onebook from your 2024 list that
really changed your perspectiveor had a big impact, which one
would it be and why?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Ooh, ooh, probably I mean the, the, the Iliad, but
that was kind of a reread.
Um, let let me go with thefirst tragedy I read, and that
was Aeschylus.
So there's three tragedywriters, there's four that are
(16:54):
considered the greatest of alltime, and three of them were
Greek and they lived at the sameexact time, which is just
insane to think about.
And they're performing these,these plays, in Athens on the
hill right by the Acropolis andthey're they're competing
against each other Like theywould have a yearly contest
(17:14):
where they're competing, and solike that.
That that was just incredible.
But the the shift for me fromgoing from Homer to the
tragedies was a difficult oneand I had to read the first
tragedy four times to get it.
And so that's Aeschylus, andthat's the, the Orestia, and
(17:45):
again each each tragedy play istwo to three hours, but there's
there that's, it's a trilogy,and so there's three parts to
that.
And I just had to sit there andread each one four times and I
don't know if it was just theswitch from homer's epic poetry
to greek tragedy, um, but itjust took me and I also had like
a really hard job I was workingon at the time.
So anytime I would go down to toto like start reading, I would.
My mind would wander prettyquickly.
(18:06):
So but but anyway, I had to, II'm.
It was frustrating, but I'mglad I spent that time and read
each one four times because Ithink it really helped me in the
other tragedy plays, like it'slike my mind got reworked into
being able to kind of understandwhat was going on in these
tragedies and how to read themand how to think about them.
(18:28):
So, uh, that was probably thethe a big, the biggest shift for
me, just in in thinking, causeI I've got a huge list that I
want to read.
So spending time reading eachone four times is it can get
frustrating or, like you know, Ineed to keep moving on, but on
the other hand, I'm really gladI took the time to do that.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
So many people don't read books and those who do read
books do good to get through itone time, much less.
Four times.
That's pretty amazing.
Uh, I, I actually have startedenjoying reading books twice and
, uh, because I get more out ofit the second time than I did
the first time, yeah, first timeI'll just, I'll just read
(19:16):
through it like I'm watching atv show or a movie, and just go
through it, you know, and thenI'll go back and uh try to
understand what, really, whatwas going on, who's doing what
and why you know so prettyimportant.
On that, let me.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Let me make one comment I um, so I, I divide my
reading, uh my each year'sreading, into five different
segments, you could call, and sothe first one is is January and
February.
I read straight through adifferent version of the Bible.
March through through June is agreat books, and I just go
right from.
I'm reading them inchronological order, so I just
(19:53):
go wherever I left off last andthen just start.
July is a summer break, and sothat's where I'm reading more
like newer books or just booksthat people have said hey, you
got it, you got to read this.
It's.
It's not on the great bookslist or whatever, but uh, so
most of those are books thathave been written in the last
five, 10 years.
Then I go back into the greatbooks and call it fall semester.
(20:16):
That's uh, that's Augustthrough November, and then
December.
I'm back in a break month, so Icall that winter break.
So right now I'm in, I'm in mywinter break, and I had a, a
publisher here in the city whereI live.
We got together for lunch andshe gave me a book and it's
called Theo of Golden by AlanLevi, and she, she gave me that
(20:40):
book and she said you need toread this as soon as you can,
and so I.
It first book that I read inDecember, but you just mentioned
you're enjoying rereading books.
When she gave me that book, shesaid I read this five times in
a row, and this is a publisher.
This was not for her workeither.
This is a publisher who isgetting constant books to read
from clients and stuff, and sothis was just for fun.
(21:02):
And she told me what each onewas.
So the first time she read it,she, she just loved it.
So she wanted to read it rightaway again.
But the first time was for theplot, like just to understand
what happened.
Second time she was reallypaying attention to the
characters.
The next time, the third time,she was looking at wordsmithing.
So just how were the words used, like how did this particular
(21:28):
author put sentences togetherand all that, and that's just
kind of fascinating for her.
The fourth time she was lookingfor Easter eggs.
So you know, is he referencingwhat's going to happen later on?
And then the fifth time I thinkshe just wanted to read it
(21:50):
again just for the pleasure ofit.
But I thought that was sointeresting and it got me
intrigued that somebody wouldread a book five times in a row
like that.
I mean, I've never heard ofanybody doing that.
You know, for what's the nameof the book?
Theo of golden by alan levi,and it really was good it was.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
It was a excellent book I've watched uh now for
movies I've.
I've watched uh up the movie up, yeah 31 times I've counted wow
wow, and I'm still going.
So I want to hit.
I'm going to get to 50.
I've got this far, you know.
Yeah, but every time I willwatch it, just like reading a
(22:30):
book.
I notice something, I getsomething.
I I see a little, uh like inone episode or in the episode in
the portion of the movie whenhe and Ellie are in her old
house and he lets go of theballoon.
Well, when she grabs his handto walk him up to get the
(22:52):
balloon, you can just ever soslightly see his face blush,
which I never noticed.
You see this slight littletinge of red.
They pay attention to so manylittle Easter eggs, so many
little details that I just thinkare fascinating.
So, yeah, I'm going to checkthis out.
I'm kind of jazzed about it,theo of Golden.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah, and another interesting idea, kind of on
that is, we had an event at thebookstore where I'm the business
manager.
We had an event about, uh, theauthor, george McDonald, who it
was his, um, I guess, 200, 200thanniversary of his birth this
year, and so, uh, the the personwe had in was discussing George
(23:39):
McDonald and in one of hisbooks in particular, and she
talked about it's calledFantasties and it's a work of
fantasy.
George MacDonald's called thefather of fantasy and he's
impacted people from Neil Gaimanto CS Lewis to Susanna Clark,
just a ton of authors and he'sgot this book, fantasties, that
(23:59):
a lot of people have troublewith.
I've read it, I've only read itonce, and I just I didn't know
what to do with it.
It's just way over my head.
And what she said is that bookwas written at a time where it
would have been read out loudamongst a family and perhaps
amongst friends as well.
So it would have been read in agroup and it would not have
(24:21):
been read one time.
It would have been read in agroup and it would not have been
read one time, it would havebeen read multiple times.
So it was written in a way asto expand every time you read it
.
You couldn't just read that bookonce and be like, okay, I've
read it.
It's like you had to read itmultiple times and it's one of
those books that's referencingstuff, hundreds of books within
(24:44):
it, and so every time you readit you could get a lot more.
But then not only that, youwould be amongst other people
and you would be discussing thebook, and so you just think
about that.
Compared to how we read booksnow individually probably just
once, if that now, individually,probably just once, if that but
(25:06):
how these books like you can'tjust read some books once, like
they're meant to be readmultiple times.
They're they're they'reprobably even meant to be read
within a group or like even youknow, homer would have been
performed that was poetry thatwould have been been sung over
many days, like it would take.
it would take multiple days toto perform that, that entire
thing.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I think the Bible might be one of those books
where every time you read it,something else comes up.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, yeah, and also just the fact that that was.
I mean, you know there'sletters in there that those
letters would have been read outloud to a group of people.
There would have been theperson that delivered the letter
, would have also addedcommentary and answered
questions.
And so, yeah, the the the bookis the that it's easy to uh to,
(25:49):
to not read a book again or ornot even really pay attention
deeply when when we are reading.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
You know you read so many books each year.
Uh, how do you retain what youread?
What's, uh, what's?
How do you yeah, how do you dothat?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Well, I forget a lot.
So I mean, uh, but the, the,I've experimented a lot just on
the things that work for me, andso when I'm reading a book, I
am um, I'm underlining- andstarring.
And I've got like a system.
So if it's got a star on theside, that's something important
(26:45):
I want to remember, If Iunderline it, that's important.
I also write notes in the backof the book like this so these
are kind of the most importantthings that I want to remember
from that book.
So then after I'm done it's onmy bookshelf.
I can take any book off myshelf and just open up to that
back page in five minutes, readkind of the main things that I
(27:08):
want to remember.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
What do you put in those notes?
Show that note again, show thatlast page.
So on the left or is like whatis that?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
a black box, or oh, that's um, this thing that's
like a, a upc code for for thebook itself oh, okay so yeah,
that's.
That's just part of the book,but oh okay, I'm sorry, but yeah
, the writing like I'll put astar next to something that's
really important, uh, but it orjust kind of a note of like what
is on that page just more oflike hey, look at this page for
(27:45):
for this, this author discussingthis, um.
So then I know where, where tolook for particular things.
So that that's kind of thefirst stage with with the actual
book itself.
Then I, I I transfer a lot ofthose notes into this notebook
which is my.
I call it my everythingnotebook and I get one of these
a year and then I put a lot ofthe book notes in here.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
The final thing.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
I do is I record a podcast episode about each of
the books, and that that is thething I mean.
I I can tell the books that Ihave not podcasted on.
Those are the books that I havetrouble remembering.
If I podcasted on a book, Ihave consolidated however many
hours of reading into a 30minute episode.
So these are kind of the mainthings from the book.
(28:28):
But the thing I think is mostimportant for remembering what
you read is just to try toremember one thing from each
book If you can implement it.
So if it's like a finance book,just implement one idea from
the book, whether that's acertain investment you make or a
way of thinking about money.
If it's a productivity book,just try to implement one thing.
(28:49):
So if you actually make achange in your life from the
book, you will obviouslyremember that because you've
made a change.
If it's a novel, I'm trying toremember the thing that I'm
thinking about two or three dayslater as I'm driving in my car.
Maybe it's an idea that stuckout to me, maybe it's something
(29:11):
that bothered me, maybe it'ssomething that was a new idea
I'd never thought of, and so atthe end of each of my podcast
episodes, I will share the onething from that book, the one
thing that I hope to rememberfrom that book.
And it's not a perfect system,I can't just look at my
(29:32):
bookshelves and tell you the onething from every book.
But it certainly does help andI found if I tried to remember
five things from a book, I wouldnot remember a single one of
them.
But if I just try to rememberone thing, a lot of times I
could recall that one thing andthen that would actually help me
to remember other things in thebook.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
As well, that's a good tip.
Yeah, remember one thing I gotto start doing that If someone
listening was looking for agreat read from your 2024 list,
which book would you recommendand what makes it a must read?
Speaker 2 (30:08):
After reading the Iliad I kind of jokingly created
this club called the Read theIliad Before you Die Club and
just try to get everyone I couldto join it, to the point of
starting a reading group in mylocal area here.
And I think if you read theIliad it just opens up so much
(30:29):
more because so much of what weread references the Iliad.
We have so many culturalreferences to the Iliad that we
don't even know our culturalreferences.
Words like hectoring come fromthe Iliad.
Achilles is in the Iliad.
A lot of the Trojan War takesplace in the Iliad.
(30:52):
So just so many things that wereference a lot, so many things
that then show up in other bookskind of start in the Iliad.
So that's such an importantplace to start.
It is time consuming, it isdifficult.
I would recommend trying toread it with a group of people
to discuss it.
There's some incrediblepodcasts and some that even came
(31:14):
out this year that go book bybook and just kind of help you
walk through the Iliad yourself.
So that would be a great placeto start, where you, um, where
you read a book and then listento the podcast episode about
that book just kind ofreinforces what you just read.
uh, kind of pulls out somethings that are important in
what you just read and and andthen just kind of work your way
(31:36):
through through the Iliad.
Uh, I know, I know it's a longbook, but once, once you read
the Iliad, then you can prettymuch go into any of the Greek
tragedies and just have a firmergrasp on what is happening.
So it just kind of opens up.
And I'm really like my biggestheart with the Iliad is to get
(31:56):
high schoolers to read it,because I think even if you
taught a class on the Iliad at ahigh school and only like one
or two kids got it and like youknow, I love this like that
would transform their lives andit would open up so much of
literature because it just somuch points back to the Iliad or
(32:17):
the Odyssey and so it it.
You know it's not a five-hourread type thing, but it would be
a challenging book.
But if you haven't read it, tryto make it a point in 2025 to
read the Iliad, and there's somany good, helpful tools out
there to help you get through it.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
All right, I'm sold.
I guess I'll read the elliottyou can make one convert here.
Yeah, good, good.
Oh also, uh, I wanted to.
Uh, this just came in today, oh, good, good, yeah.
So, uh, thanks for the, uhthanks for the brad thor book.
(33:00):
I really appreciate that.
You wrote a little, a littleautograph in there, a little
note.
A true patriot, keep reading.
Yeah, brad Thor is really greatand I really appreciate that.
Yeah, I'm really jealous thatyou get to meet him and talk
with him and stuff.
That's a that's really cool Alittle a great side benefit for
(33:21):
you there.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Yeah, yeah, that's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Well, if someone wants to get more information
about you, your reading what'syour podcast.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah, it's called Books of Titans.
And then I actually moved mypodcast over to Substack this
year.
Substack that allows me to.
If people get value out of thepodcast, they can give money to
it.
So that's one side of it.
The other thing I'm doing is in2025, I'm going to start a
(33:55):
reading group, both in personand online, where we just meet
once a month and the're going to.
The theme is short, great books, so I'm trying to pick books
that you can read between twoand five hours.
So you know, nothing like theIliad.
Uh, the Iliad actually becamequite cumbersome to to lead a
group about cause I would haveto read it and then you know,
(34:18):
prepare, and then we'd have thediscussion and we did it for
nine weeks in a row and so, withmy other reading and work and
family and all it got to be toomuch.
So I want to keep doingsomething of a reading group,
but not that much.
So now it's just once a month.
So if you live near Franklin,Tennessee, we're going to meet
(34:39):
the second Mondays of each month, but then I'm also doing an
online version, which will be onWednesdays, the Wednesday after
that second Monday of eachmonth, and it'll be like the
first book is the Epic ofGilgamesh.
The second book will beNarrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass.
I've got some Greek tragediesin there.
I've got A Christmas Carol forDecember by Charles Dickens, Old
(35:04):
man and the Sea by Hemingway.
So, yeah, just great books, butones that we can read quickly
and then have a good discussion.
So if you are a paid subscriberon my sub stack, that gets you
in to that online discussionpiece and I've got plans that
are just $5 a month.
So for five bucks a month youcould join and you don't have to
(35:26):
do all 12 months.
You could just kind of pick andchoose the books that you want
to read and discuss.
But yeah, I'm just trying tointroduce people to the great
books, to just show that they'reapproachable.
They're not like these things.
I don't have a college degreeof learning how to read
(35:46):
literature.
That's not what I studied incollege.
Uh, the these books, they'renot meant to confuse us and make
things hard, Like they're meantto teach.
They're meant to beapproachable and so I I hope I
can get that across to where itjust opens up people to to
realize that there's someincredible things in these
(36:08):
classics and these great books.
So, uh, that that's probablythe best way on that sub stack
and that's just books oftitanscom, If you, if you're
interested in in the readinglists that I've had, uh, the
great books list that I'm goingthrough, I have that all at
booksbooksoftitanscom and soit's just kind of two websites.
The one is booksoftitanscom andthe other is
(36:29):
booksbooksoftitanscom.
And then I'm also on Twitterand Instagram as well at
booksoftitans.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Right, what was your major?
Speaker 2 (36:40):
I did international business, so I studied at the
undergraduate level and then Iworked in international business
for a while and then got agraduate degree in international
business.
And while I was in grad schoolI had a teacher who taught us
entrepreneurship but the basicsof a lot of things, so that we
(37:00):
could kind of bootstrap abusiness.
And one of the things he taughtus was, uh, website development
, and I just took on to, I justI loved it and uh, so I kind of
mixed that with my businessbackground and and have been
doing websites for differentclients for 16 years now wow,
that's cool.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Well, eric, uh, let's do this again next year yeah
we'll go for number four yeahwell, good luck with your
podcast, good luck with yourreading and, uh, anything to
look forward to in 2025regarding your books any
anything you're looking forwardto.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
I know probably all the books you're looking forward
to, but any one more than theother yeah, I, I'll be finishing
the Greek tragedies and I endedup deciding to read every
single one of them.
So Aeschylus has seven,sophocles has seven as well, and
then Euripides has 19.
And so I'm going to leave oneunread by Euripides, because I
(37:59):
can't bear the thought of havingread all the tragedies.
So I'm going to leave oneunread, but I'll close that out
in my reading next year.
And then I'll get into thecomedies Aristophanes is a Greek
comedy writer and then a fewworks of history, and then into
the philosophy.
So I've always been intimidatedby philosophy.
(38:19):
So, uh, I was, I've always beenintimidated by philosophy.
So I'm a little nervous aboutthat, I guess.
But uh, I think, with thebackground now of having read
Homer and the tragedies and thatkind of thing, I I may have a
little more understanding ofwhat, what is going on.
So that's the hope at least.
Um, but yeah, the, the, thefinal tragedy plays, are the
(38:40):
ones I'm looking forward to themost, just because I've enjoyed
them so much this year.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
It's awesome.
Well, once again, thanks forthe book.
Really appreciate it.
Brad Thor is one of my is myfavorite.
I'll read this again and yeahwhat's your book?
Where do you work?
What's the bookstore's name?
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Landmark Booksellers in Franklin Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Franklin Tennessee.
All right.
So if you're in FranklinTennessee, stop by see Eric and
buy a book.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yeah.
Yeah, we're about 20 minutessouth of Nashville, so not too
far away.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Yeah, all right, eric .
Well, thanks for stopping byand visiting with us again, and
I look forward to having youagain, uh, in about a year yeah,
sounds good.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Good to see you, scott good to see you too.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
So for eric rostad, this is scott townsend.
Thanks for watching andlistening to the scott townsend
show.
Have a great day.
Everything's gonna be all right, and we'll talk to you later.
And then it'll go to black andwhite and all that jazz.
Cool, cool, all right, man.
Well, have a Merry Christmas,tell the family.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
I said hi.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
We said hi.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah, what were some of your favorites for this year?
Speaker 1 (40:02):
You know I'm really enjoying the Intelligent
Investor by Benjamin Graham.
Warren Buffett said it'sprobably the best book on
investing ever written.
Yeah, and Thinking Fast andSlow by Daniel Kahneman.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
I had to read that one twice because it was a
little over my head and I I justrefused to be confounded by it.
So I tackled it a second timeand enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Good you know that that had a huge impact on me
doing the great books, because Iread that and then that same
year I read like four or fiveother books that all they did
was take one idea from Kahnemanand apply it to like negotiating
or persuasion or something likethat.
And I'm like I didn't need toread these five other books,
(40:55):
Like Kahneman was kind of thesource that everyone is now
pulling from.
So it's like it's better just toread Kahneman.
It just kind of got me thinkingof, like there are source books
out there that are theimportant books and there's a
lot of books that are justderivative of that.
I don't want to waste my timereading the derivative books.
I want to first read the sourcebooks before I go back to
(41:17):
derivative books.
But yeah, that Kahneman bookwas like this is something
important.
I need to spend more timereading those.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
I'm reading, uh, seth Godin's uh, this is strategy.
Oh yeah, I'm kind of having ahard time with it.
It's a good book and he hassome really great points and
it'll jump out or once in awhile.
But, um, uh, I'm going tofinish it, I'm going to go to
the end and I might have to readit again because, I don't know,
(41:47):
it seems it doesn't seem verylinear.
It's just kind of this way andthat way and goes over here and
then back over there, and it'skind of hard for me to follow
along with what he's reallytrying to say.
And then every once in a whilehe'll just say something that
just jumps off the page andslaps you across the face, you
know.
So I enjoy that.
(42:10):
But it's cool, all right manwell merry christmas, happy new
year and, uh, we'll see you in2025 all right, see you, scott
all right bye, bye.
so, yeah, I've been following along, listening to
your uh podcast and enjoying theuh the greek the trip through
greece nice and uh, yeah, solook forward to talking about it
here, letting them, lettinglisteners, share your, your
journey uh, let's see anythingelse phones turned down.
(00:27):
You got water, plenty of drinkthere.
Like I said, if you need tostop, start over, um, think
about what you're going to say,that's fine.
I can always edit it out.
The.
The audio will be edited, uh,the video version.
I'm going to try to just leaveit unedited, um, and uh post it
(00:48):
on youtube, um, and thenafterwards I'll send you the
media kit with all the links andpictures and whatnot thumbnails
.
You can do whatever you wantwith those.
Okay, all right, so you'reready yeah, let's do it hey this
is scott Scott Townsend.
Welcome back to the ScottTownsend Show.
And today I have with merecurring guest for the third
(01:09):
time in as many years, EricRostad.
Eric, how's it going?
Speaker 2 (01:14):
It's great.
How are you doing?
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Great Good.
Yeah, it's a tradition here atthe Scott Townsend Show to have
Eric come in on Decembers andhe's got an interesting project.
If you've listened before, youknow he's got a reading project
that he does year to year and inDecember we get together and
(01:37):
talk about what he's read, whathe's learned, what he's done,
what's good, what's bad, youknow, just kind of giving us a
year-end review of his readingproject.
So, yeah, I'm going to turn itback over to you, but before I
do that, what I always askeverybody is what did you have
for breakfast this morning?
Speaker 2 (01:55):
I had a pretty big breakfast, so I always start
with coffee, and then I hadthree eggs, and then I had a
sandwich with um, peanut butterand honey that's my favorite A
little bananas in there as well,and then, uh, my daughter's
favorite thing right now iscinnamon rolls, so my wife made
(02:16):
those, and so I usually don'thave that much, but I had a
cinnamon roll to top it all off.
So, and an orange, cause my, uh, my colleague at the bookstore
just got us all oranges, and soI had an orange as well.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, that's great.
So, uh, fill us in this 2024.
Uh, you're, you know, from yearto year you do different
reading projects and it seemslike this one spilled over from
the year before.
Maybe, uh, I'll kind of let letyou go in to give us what was
your plan for 2024 and how didit go.
Speaker 2 (02:51):
Yeah, well, yeah, and in thinking back that this is
our third time talking, thefirst time we talked would have
been right at the point where Iwas making a shift in my reading
project.
So I started it in 2017 as away to read more books, but also
to put in some experiments tobetter remember what I was
reading.
So I didn't just want to read abunch of books and then forget
(03:13):
them all.
So the first six years of theproject so 2017 through 2022, I
would just make different listsof 52 books and then attempt to
get through all those in a year.
And between 2022 and 2023, Idecided to start reading the
(03:35):
great books.
And so, for anyone who's notaware of the great books,
there's a bunch of differentlists out there that are just
the books that have stood thetest of time and the books that
have kind of informed all theother books, and so there's
different let's say how do youdefine?
Speaker 1 (03:53):
how do you define a great book?
I think you know like I thinkStuart Little's a good, great
book, but it doesn't necessarily.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Yeah, so let me get into that in just a minute.
So I went, I looked at allthese different lists and then I
made a list of like the two,roughly 200 of the ones that I
wanted to read, and instead ofit being 200 great books, it's
more 200 great authors, justbecause I don't want to just
read one book by Shakespeare, Iwant to read a bunch of his
(04:22):
plays.
I don't want to just read onething from Plato, I want to read
a bunch of them.
And so it'll end up being morekind of like 200 authors.
And, um, yeah, at first Ididn't really know.
Uh, back to your question.
I didn't really know what agreat book meant, other than
that it just was really good andand had had had an impact.
(04:43):
But what?
What I've, what I've started tosee, is that the great books
talk to each other.
And so, for instance, I startedreading Homer last year, and I
started with the Iliad, and thenI read the Odyssey, and and
then in this year 2024, I gotinto the Greek tragedies.
And what happens at a lot ofthese Greek tragedies is that
(05:04):
they are, they're commenting onor referencing things that
happen in Homer.
So there's there's this directconnection where they're,
they're kind of riffing on whatHomer has introduced.
And then this next year, 2025,is when I'll start getting into
the philosophers like Plato andAristotle, and for what I
understand of them is thatthey're also taking ideas from
(05:28):
Homer and they're talking aboutthem more in a philosophical
manner and in the tragediesyou're kind of dealing with the
ideas that have been brought upin Homer in a tragic situation,
but one where it's kind of likeyou're damned if you do, you're
damned if you don't, and so itjust puts you in this impossible
situation.
But one where it's kind of likeyou're damned if you do, you're
damned if you don't, and so itjust puts you in this impossible
(05:48):
situation.
But looking at whether issuesof morality, questions, deep
questions like what should youdo in a given circumstance, but
with these tragedies it's justlike these impossible
circumstances.
So you really get kind of aworking out of what.
What does this look like?
What does it mean?
What does it mean to say thisor to have this ideal?
(06:11):
But then what does that looklike in real life?
So yeah, the great books.
So then you know, going furtheron, st Augustine writes
Confessions, but writes it inthe structure of the Odyssey.
Nietzsche writes a book abouttragedies.
He's referring to the Greektragedies, and so that's kind of
(06:32):
.
This connection point with thegreat books is that they're
speaking to those ideas.
So I'll see, as I go along, ifthere's kind of these individual
books along the way that juststand alone without referencing.
(06:54):
But I have a feeling that a lotof the books on these lists are
going to be ones that arereferencing one another.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
So you went back.
How far back did you do you go?
Did you go regarding the greatbooks?
Uh, I know you do the Bibleonce a year at the beginning of
the year.
Uh, how far back do you did yougo with these?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, so when I, when I made my initial list, it I
think it was around 1800 BC,which would be the Epic of
Gilgamesh I think it's aroundthat timeframe.
And then I started reading theEpic of Gilgamesh and one of the
translations I used was by aguy named Sophus Hell, and as I
(07:37):
was reading Gilgamesh he cameout with a translation of an
even older work by a femaleauthor from 2300 BC and her name
is in Hedawana and she lived inthe city of Ur, which is where
Abram was called out of in theBible.
But she was a priestess and shewent around and wrote about the
(07:59):
different gods and the differenttemples in the city of Ur and
it's really interesting.
And so that kind of became thenew, oldest book.
We just found the tablets thather poetry was written on within
the last 50 or 100 years, soit's relatively new where we
(08:21):
found these tablets, and thenthey were translated and then
this is the first complete worksreleased by her and it was just
released last year.
So the oldest one now is 2300BC, which puts that roughly 1500
years before Homer.
So a lot of the great bookslists will start with Homer, and
(08:41):
rightly so, in the sense ofjust the impact that Homer has
had.
I like to go back a littlefurther with works from Egypt,
gilgamesh, and then this inHedawana as well.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Right In the 2024 Reading Project.
Are there any books in thislist that surprised you?
Any that you thought were likewow, that was like really
awesome or that wasn't quite asgreat as I thought it was going
to be, was there?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
any surprises.
Yeah, I'll do one of one.
Of each one a surprise, andthen one not, not as good as I
thought it would be.
So, um uh, uh, let me justpreface the good one.
So I, I read the Iliad last yearfor the first time in my life,
but I wanted to read the Iliadand the Odyssey twice just to
make sure I got the story downand all that.
(09:30):
And so my second reading of theIliad occurred in March of this
past year and I just love it.
I ended up reading it one moretime and I led a reading group
on it later this year.
So I think, just uh, overall,the Iliad is, it's, it's my new
favorite book.
I just, anytime I would pick itup, whether it was I only had a
(09:52):
few minutes to read or like anhour to read, I would just get
something like this isincredible, you know, even just
like one page would just be astop, uh, astonishing.
And so I, I love the Iliad, Ithink the thing.
So partly the Iliad in terms ofwhat surprised me.
(10:15):
But secondly, after the Iliad,I read this book called Greek
Epic Fragments, and what it didwas go into fragments of works
that we don't have the full workand what was contained in that
book was something called theEpic Trojan Cycle and that was
made up of eight works, and theIliad and the Odyssey are two of
the eight works, but there areworks number two and seven, and
(10:38):
so there is a work before theIliad, not necessarily written
by written by Homer, and in factthey probably weren't written
by Homer, but there was thisgroup of eight works that the
Greeks would have known.
They would have known all thestories in these we only have
two of them, um, but that justfascinated me.
Like we're missing six of theseworks.
(10:58):
We kind of have a rough ideawhat was in each of those, cause
someone in the ancient time dida review of or kind of a
summary of each of the works.
Uh, so we, we know what'sinside and we know some of the
myths and all that and thestories from from other works.
But I just I had no idea that,uh, that these, that the alien,
(11:19):
the odyssey, were part of this,this, this grand work of like
eight works together that madeup the epic Trojan cycle, and
just coming across that was wasreally interesting to me, so
that, on the good side that was,that was a big surprise.
On the the hard side I'll saythat, not like it's not a bad
(11:39):
book, because it's it's one ofthe great books, but just one
that I had trouble withpersonally was Pindar's Odes,
and this is written after thetime of Homer.
But this Pindar, who's theauthor, wrote these kind of odes
or songs or almost like praisesof different Greek athletes,
(12:02):
and then he tied in a lot ofmythology.
But the way I describe it isyou almost need like a master's
degree level of understanding ofGreek mythology to understand
what he's talking about, causeit just goes so deep and I'm
maybe at like the elementaryschool level of understanding
Greek mythology so it just somuch of it was over my head.
It just it.
(12:23):
I'm glad I read it and there'ssome neat stories in there, but
um, that was one I just had alot of trouble with reading this
year.
Speaker 1 (12:31):
You know when you, uh , are you redoing this for
pleasure or are you doing thisto learn?
Is there a balance there?
Is this like you sit back andyou just enjoy reading about the
?
You know, elliot and homer andthe odyssey, or is this a way to
grow, develop, learn?
(12:53):
Is there, is it one, either oneor both, or what's the balance
there?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
yeah, uh, I think probably at first it was more.
I just I didn't want to die nothaving read these works.
Just they're great.
And over the last 20 years I'vebeen buying these books with
the hope that I would somedayread them.
But I never really had a planto read them.
It was just more of like a hopeand maybe some of that comes
(13:23):
from having read a couple books,like 20 years ago that would be
considered great books, andjust reading them and thinking
these are incredible, like these, these are amazing.
So now that I'm, I made a planto actually get through them.
At first it may have been kindof more of a I want to read them
(13:44):
, just get through them, but themore I'm reading them now I
would consider 2024 my best yearof reading, in the sense of it
being the most enjoyable year ofreading and I would say 2023
was that before I got to 2024.
I read a lot of the Greektragedies this year and each one
(14:06):
I would go to, each differenttragedy I would go to.
I was like this this is justincredible.
And so the enjoyment levels ofreading were just off the charts
.
I mean, I, I it truly was themost enjoyable year of reading
I've ever had.
And so, yeah, maybe it startedout the one way, but like it is,
it is becoming so enjoyable.
(14:28):
Like I, I love reading.
When, when I reread the Iliad,I loved that when I led the
reading group on the Iliad, itwas just fascinating to hear, uh
, people's views on the Iliad,and a lot of them it was their
first time reading it, so justkind of hearing first ideas of
what they're coming across andall that.
So, yeah, it's become like justan absolute pleasure and joy of
(14:52):
reading these works.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I hear the phrase.
It read like a Greek tragedy.
You know, the Greek tragedy.
I guess that just must be theworst that can ever happen.
Is a Greek tragedy that?
I guess that?
Just must be the worst that canever happen as a Greek tragedy,
that bad I mean yeah, it's.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
In some of them the levels of suffering of the main
characters are off the charts.
But yeah, I, but that phrase,what you, what you say, like
reads like a Greek tragedy,maybe in in just how bad it is,
I guess.
Or like in this, like how badit is for the people involved in
the story.
Um, but the the storiesthemselves are are fascinating
(15:35):
and they're relatively short.
I mean, you can read throughone in two to three hours, uh.
But they reference so manydifferent parts of the Greek
mythology or they referencedifferent parts of Homer to
where it's just fun to see howthey do it.
The audience surely would haveknown what was going to happen
in each of these stories, and alot of the times we know what
(15:58):
has happened just from otherGreek works or just movies we've
seen or all that.
So part of it, it's like goingto watch titanic, like we know
what's going to happen, yeah, uh, so it's kind of up to the
movie producer in that case tomake it interesting and to tell
different stories going on theway.
So that's kind of a lot ofwhat's happening in the greek
(16:19):
tragedies.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Like the audience would have known what was going
to happen if you had to pick onebook from your 2024 list that
really changed your perspectiveor had a big impact, which one
would it be and why?
Speaker 2 (16:34):
Ooh, ooh, probably I mean the, the, the Iliad, but
that was kind of a reread.
Um, let let me go with thefirst tragedy I read, and that
was Aeschylus.
So there's three tragedywriters, there's four that are
(16:54):
considered the greatest of alltime, and three of them were
Greek and they lived at the sameexact time, which is just
insane to think about.
And they're performing these,these plays, in Athens on the
hill right by the Acropolis andthey're they're competing
against each other Like theywould have a yearly contest
(17:14):
where they're competing, and solike that.
That that was just incredible.
But the the shift for me fromgoing from Homer to the
tragedies was a difficult oneand I had to read the first
tragedy four times to get it.
And so that's Aeschylus, andthat's the, the Orestia, and
(17:45):
again each each tragedy play istwo to three hours, but there's
there that's, it's a trilogy,and so there's three parts to
that.
And I just had to sit there andread each one four times and I
don't know if it was just theswitch from homer's epic poetry
to greek tragedy, um, but itjust took me and I also had like
a really hard job I was workingon at the time.
So anytime I would go down to toto like start reading, I would.
My mind would wander prettyquickly.
(18:06):
So but but anyway, I had to, II'm.
It was frustrating, but I'mglad I spent that time and read
each one four times because Ithink it really helped me in the
other tragedy plays, like it'slike my mind got reworked into
being able to kind of understandwhat was going on in these
tragedies and how to read themand how to think about them.
(18:28):
So, uh, that was probably thethe a big, the biggest shift for
me, just in in thinking, causeI I've got a huge list that I
want to read.
So spending time reading eachone four times is it can get
frustrating or, like you know, Ineed to keep moving on, but on
the other hand, I'm really gladI took the time to do that.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
So many people don't read books and those who do read
books do good to get through itone time, much less.
Four times.
That's pretty amazing.
Uh, I, I actually have startedenjoying reading books twice and
, uh, because I get more out ofit the second time than I did
the first time, yeah, first timeI'll just, I'll just read
(19:16):
through it like I'm watching atv show or a movie, and just go
through it, you know, and thenI'll go back and uh try to
understand what, really, whatwas going on, who's doing what
and why you know so prettyimportant.
On that, let me.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
Let me make one comment I um, so I, I divide my
reading, uh my each year'sreading, into five different
segments, you could call, and sothe first one is is January and
February.
I read straight through adifferent version of the Bible.
March through through June is agreat books, and I just go
right from.
I'm reading them inchronological order, so I just
(19:53):
go wherever I left off last andthen just start.
July is a summer break, and sothat's where I'm reading more
like newer books or just booksthat people have said hey, you
got it, you got to read this.
It's.
It's not on the great bookslist or whatever, but uh, so
most of those are books thathave been written in the last
five, 10 years.
Then I go back into the greatbooks and call it fall semester.
(20:16):
That's uh, that's Augustthrough November, and then
December.
I'm back in a break month, so Icall that winter break.
So right now I'm in, I'm in mywinter break, and I had a, a
publisher here in the city whereI live.
We got together for lunch andshe gave me a book and it's
called Theo of Golden by AlanLevi, and she, she gave me that
(20:40):
book and she said you need toread this as soon as you can,
and so I.
It first book that I read inDecember, but you just mentioned
you're enjoying rereading books.
When she gave me that book, shesaid I read this five times in
a row, and this is a publisher.
This was not for her workeither.
This is a publisher who isgetting constant books to read
from clients and stuff, and sothis was just for fun.
(21:02):
And she told me what each onewas.
So the first time she read it,she, she just loved it.
So she wanted to read it rightaway again.
But the first time was for theplot, like just to understand
what happened.
Second time she was reallypaying attention to the
characters.
The next time, the third time,she was looking at wordsmithing.
So just how were the words used, like how did this particular
(21:28):
author put sentences togetherand all that, and that's just
kind of fascinating for her.
The fourth time she was lookingfor Easter eggs.
So you know, is he referencingwhat's going to happen later on?
And then the fifth time I thinkshe just wanted to read it
(21:50):
again just for the pleasure ofit.
But I thought that was sointeresting and it got me
intrigued that somebody wouldread a book five times in a row
like that.
I mean, I've never heard ofanybody doing that.
You know, for what's the nameof the book?
Theo of golden by alan levi,and it really was good it was.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
It was a excellent book I've watched uh now for
movies I've.
I've watched uh up the movie up, yeah 31 times I've counted wow
wow, and I'm still going.
So I want to hit.
I'm going to get to 50.
I've got this far, you know.
Yeah, but every time I willwatch it, just like reading a
(22:30):
book.
I notice something, I getsomething.
I I see a little, uh like inone episode or in the episode in
the portion of the movie whenhe and Ellie are in her old
house and he lets go of theballoon.
Well, when she grabs his handto walk him up to get the
(22:52):
balloon, you can just ever soslightly see his face blush,
which I never noticed.
You see this slight littletinge of red.
They pay attention to so manylittle Easter eggs, so many
little details that I just thinkare fascinating.
So, yeah, I'm going to checkthis out.
I'm kind of jazzed about it,theo of Golden.
Speaker 2 (23:15):
Yeah, and another interesting idea, kind of on
that is, we had an event at thebookstore where I'm the business
manager.
We had an event about, uh, theauthor, george McDonald, who it
was his, um, I guess, 200, 200thanniversary of his birth this
year, and so, uh, the the personwe had in was discussing George
(23:39):
McDonald and in one of hisbooks in particular, and she
talked about it's calledFantasties and it's a work of
fantasy.
George MacDonald's called thefather of fantasy and he's
impacted people from Neil Gaimanto CS Lewis to Susanna Clark,
just a ton of authors and he'sgot this book, fantasties, that
(23:59):
a lot of people have troublewith.
I've read it, I've only read itonce, and I just I didn't know
what to do with it.
It's just way over my head.
And what she said is that bookwas written at a time where it
would have been read out loudamongst a family and perhaps
amongst friends as well.
So it would have been read in agroup and it would not have
(24:21):
been read one time.
It would have been read in agroup and it would not have been
read one time, it would havebeen read multiple times.
So it was written in a way asto expand every time you read it
.
You couldn't just read that bookonce and be like, okay, I've
read it.
It's like you had to read itmultiple times and it's one of
those books that's referencingstuff, hundreds of books within
(24:44):
it, and so every time you readit you could get a lot more.
But then not only that, youwould be amongst other people
and you would be discussing thebook, and so you just think
about that.
Compared to how we read booksnow individually probably just
once, if that now, individually,probably just once, if that but
(25:06):
how these books like you can'tjust read some books once, like
they're meant to be readmultiple times.
They're they're they'reprobably even meant to be read
within a group or like even youknow, homer would have been
performed that was poetry thatwould have been been sung over
many days, like it would take.
it would take multiple days toto perform that, that entire
thing.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
I think the Bible might be one of those books
where every time you read it,something else comes up.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Yeah, yeah, and also just the fact that that was.
I mean, you know there'sletters in there that those
letters would have been read outloud to a group of people.
There would have been theperson that delivered the letter
, would have also addedcommentary and answered
questions.
And so, yeah, the the the bookis the that it's easy to uh to,
(25:49):
to not read a book again or ornot even really pay attention
deeply when when we are reading.
Speaker 1 (26:10):
You know you read so many books each year.
Uh, how do you retain what youread?
What's, uh, what's?
How do you yeah, how do you dothat?
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Well, I forget a lot.
So I mean, uh, but the, the,I've experimented a lot just on
the things that work for me, andso when I'm reading a book, I
am um, I'm underlining- andstarring.
And I've got like a system.
So if it's got a star on theside, that's something important
(26:45):
I want to remember, If Iunderline it, that's important.
I also write notes in the backof the book like this so these
are kind of the most importantthings that I want to remember
from that book.
So then after I'm done it's onmy bookshelf.
I can take any book off myshelf and just open up to that
back page in five minutes, readkind of the main things that I
(27:08):
want to remember.
Speaker 1 (27:12):
What do you put in those notes?
Show that note again, show thatlast page.
So on the left or is like whatis that?
Speaker 2 (27:21):
a black box, or oh, that's um, this thing that's
like a, a upc code for for thebook itself oh, okay so yeah,
that's.
That's just part of the book,but oh okay, I'm sorry, but yeah
, the writing like I'll put astar next to something that's
really important, uh, but it orjust kind of a note of like what
is on that page just more oflike hey, look at this page for
(27:45):
for this, this author discussingthis, um.
So then I know where, where tolook for particular things.
So that that's kind of thefirst stage with with the actual
book itself.
Then I, I I transfer a lot ofthose notes into this notebook
which is my.
I call it my everythingnotebook and I get one of these
a year and then I put a lot ofthe book notes in here.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
The final thing.
Speaker 2 (28:06):
I do is I record a podcast episode about each of
the books, and that that is thething I mean.
I I can tell the books that Ihave not podcasted on.
Those are the books that I havetrouble remembering.
If I podcasted on a book, Ihave consolidated however many
hours of reading into a 30minute episode.
So these are kind of the mainthings from the book.
(28:28):
But the thing I think is mostimportant for remembering what
you read is just to try toremember one thing from each
book If you can implement it.
So if it's like a finance book,just implement one idea from
the book, whether that's acertain investment you make or a
way of thinking about money.
If it's a productivity book,just try to implement one thing.
(28:49):
So if you actually make achange in your life from the
book, you will obviouslyremember that because you've
made a change.
If it's a novel, I'm trying toremember the thing that I'm
thinking about two or three dayslater as I'm driving in my car.
Maybe it's an idea that stuckout to me, maybe it's something
(29:11):
that bothered me, maybe it'ssomething that was a new idea
I'd never thought of, and so atthe end of each of my podcast
episodes, I will share the onething from that book, the one
thing that I hope to rememberfrom that book.
And it's not a perfect system,I can't just look at my
(29:32):
bookshelves and tell you the onething from every book.
But it certainly does help andI found if I tried to remember
five things from a book, I wouldnot remember a single one of
them.
But if I just try to rememberone thing, a lot of times I
could recall that one thing andthen that would actually help me
to remember other things in thebook.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
As well, that's a good tip.
Yeah, remember one thing I gotto start doing that If someone
listening was looking for agreat read from your 2024 list,
which book would you recommendand what makes it a must read?
Speaker 2 (30:08):
After reading the Iliad I kind of jokingly created
this club called the Read theIliad Before you Die Club and
just try to get everyone I couldto join it, to the point of
starting a reading group in mylocal area here.
And I think if you read theIliad it just opens up so much
(30:29):
more because so much of what weread references the Iliad.
We have so many culturalreferences to the Iliad that we
don't even know our culturalreferences.
Words like hectoring come fromthe Iliad.
Achilles is in the Iliad.
A lot of the Trojan War takesplace in the Iliad.
(30:52):
So just so many things that wereference a lot, so many things
that then show up in other bookskind of start in the Iliad.
So that's such an importantplace to start.
It is time consuming, it isdifficult.
I would recommend trying toread it with a group of people
to discuss it.
There's some incrediblepodcasts and some that even came
(31:14):
out this year that go book bybook and just kind of help you
walk through the Iliad yourself.
So that would be a great placeto start, where you, um, where
you read a book and then listento the podcast episode about
that book just kind ofreinforces what you just read.
uh, kind of pulls out somethings that are important in
what you just read and and andthen just kind of work your way
(31:36):
through through the Iliad.
Uh, I know, I know it's a longbook, but once, once you read
the Iliad, then you can prettymuch go into any of the Greek
tragedies and just have a firmergrasp on what is happening.
So it just kind of opens up.
And I'm really like my biggestheart with the Iliad is to get
(31:56):
high schoolers to read it,because I think even if you
taught a class on the Iliad at ahigh school and only like one
or two kids got it and like youknow, I love this like that
would transform their lives andit would open up so much of
literature because it just somuch points back to the Iliad or
(32:17):
the Odyssey and so it it.
You know it's not a five-hourread type thing, but it would be
a challenging book.
But if you haven't read it, tryto make it a point in 2025 to
read the Iliad, and there's somany good, helpful tools out
there to help you get through it.
Speaker 1 (32:39):
All right, I'm sold.
I guess I'll read the elliottyou can make one convert here.
Yeah, good, good.
Oh also, uh, I wanted to.
Uh, this just came in today, oh, good, good, yeah.
So, uh, thanks for the, uhthanks for the brad thor book.
(33:00):
I really appreciate that.
You wrote a little, a littleautograph in there, a little
note.
A true patriot, keep reading.
Yeah, brad Thor is really greatand I really appreciate that.
Yeah, I'm really jealous thatyou get to meet him and talk
with him and stuff.
That's a that's really cool Alittle a great side benefit for
(33:21):
you there.
Speaker 2 (33:22):
Yeah, yeah, that's been a lot of fun.
Speaker 1 (33:26):
Well, if someone wants to get more information
about you, your reading what'syour podcast.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Yeah, it's called Books of Titans.
And then I actually moved mypodcast over to Substack this
year.
Substack that allows me to.
If people get value out of thepodcast, they can give money to
it.
So that's one side of it.
The other thing I'm doing is in2025, I'm going to start a
(33:55):
reading group, both in personand online, where we just meet
once a month and the're going to.
The theme is short, great books, so I'm trying to pick books
that you can read between twoand five hours.
So you know, nothing like theIliad.
Uh, the Iliad actually becamequite cumbersome to to lead a
group about cause I would haveto read it and then you know,
(34:18):
prepare, and then we'd have thediscussion and we did it for
nine weeks in a row and so, withmy other reading and work and
family and all it got to be toomuch.
So I want to keep doingsomething of a reading group,
but not that much.
So now it's just once a month.
So if you live near Franklin,Tennessee, we're going to meet
(34:39):
the second Mondays of each month, but then I'm also doing an
online version, which will be onWednesdays, the Wednesday after
that second Monday of eachmonth, and it'll be like the
first book is the Epic ofGilgamesh.
The second book will beNarrative of the Life of
Frederick Douglass.
I've got some Greek tragediesin there.
I've got A Christmas Carol forDecember by Charles Dickens, Old
(35:04):
man and the Sea by Hemingway.
So, yeah, just great books, butones that we can read quickly
and then have a good discussion.
So if you are a paid subscriberon my sub stack, that gets you
in to that online discussionpiece and I've got plans that
are just $5 a month.
So for five bucks a month youcould join and you don't have to
(35:26):
do all 12 months.
You could just kind of pick andchoose the books that you want
to read and discuss.
But yeah, I'm just trying tointroduce people to the great
books, to just show that they'reapproachable.
They're not like these things.
I don't have a college degreeof learning how to read
(35:46):
literature.
That's not what I studied incollege.
Uh, the these books, they'renot meant to confuse us and make
things hard, Like they're meantto teach.
They're meant to beapproachable and so I I hope I
can get that across to where itjust opens up people to to
realize that there's someincredible things in these
(36:08):
classics and these great books.
So, uh, that that's probablythe best way on that sub stack
and that's just books oftitanscom, If you, if you're
interested in in the readinglists that I've had, uh, the
great books list that I'm goingthrough, I have that all at
booksbooksoftitanscom and soit's just kind of two websites.
The one is booksoftitanscom andthe other is
(36:29):
booksbooksoftitanscom.
And then I'm also on Twitterand Instagram as well at
booksoftitans.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Right, what was your major?
Speaker 2 (36:40):
I did international business, so I studied at the
undergraduate level and then Iworked in international business
for a while and then got agraduate degree in international
business.
And while I was in grad schoolI had a teacher who taught us
entrepreneurship but the basicsof a lot of things, so that we
(37:00):
could kind of bootstrap abusiness.
And one of the things he taughtus was, uh, website development
, and I just took on to, I justI loved it and uh, so I kind of
mixed that with my businessbackground and and have been
doing websites for differentclients for 16 years now wow,
that's cool.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
Well, eric, uh, let's do this again next year yeah
we'll go for number four yeahwell, good luck with your
podcast, good luck with yourreading and, uh, anything to
look forward to in 2025regarding your books any
anything you're looking forwardto.
Speaker 2 (37:35):
I know probably all the books you're looking forward
to, but any one more than theother yeah, I, I'll be finishing
the Greek tragedies and I endedup deciding to read every
single one of them.
So Aeschylus has seven,sophocles has seven as well, and
then Euripides has 19.
And so I'm going to leave oneunread by Euripides, because I
(37:59):
can't bear the thought of havingread all the tragedies.
So I'm going to leave oneunread, but I'll close that out
in my reading next year.
And then I'll get into thecomedies Aristophanes is a Greek
comedy writer and then a fewworks of history, and then into
the philosophy.
So I've always been intimidatedby philosophy.
(38:19):
So, uh, I was, I've always beenintimidated by philosophy.
So I'm a little nervous aboutthat, I guess.
But uh, I think, with thebackground now of having read
Homer and the tragedies and thatkind of thing, I I may have a
little more understanding ofwhat, what is going on.
So that's the hope at least.
Um, but yeah, the, the, thefinal tragedy plays, are the
(38:40):
ones I'm looking forward to themost, just because I've enjoyed
them so much this year.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
It's awesome.
Well, once again, thanks forthe book.
Really appreciate it.
Brad Thor is one of my is myfavorite.
I'll read this again and yeahwhat's your book?
Where do you work?
What's the bookstore's name?
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Landmark Booksellers in Franklin Tennessee.
Speaker 1 (39:04):
Franklin Tennessee.
All right.
So if you're in FranklinTennessee, stop by see Eric and
buy a book.
Speaker 2 (39:10):
Yeah.
Yeah, we're about 20 minutessouth of Nashville, so not too
far away.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Yeah, all right, eric .
Well, thanks for stopping byand visiting with us again, and
I look forward to having youagain, uh, in about a year yeah,
sounds good.
Speaker 2 (39:25):
Good to see you, scott good to see you too.
Speaker 1 (39:27):
So for eric rostad, this is scott townsend.
Thanks for watching andlistening to the scott townsend
show.
Have a great day.
Everything's gonna be all right, and we'll talk to you later.
And then it'll go to black andwhite and all that jazz.
Cool, cool, all right, man.
Well, have a Merry Christmas,tell the family.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
I said hi.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
We said hi.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Yeah, what were some of your favorites for this year?
Speaker 1 (40:02):
You know I'm really enjoying the Intelligent
Investor by Benjamin Graham.
Warren Buffett said it'sprobably the best book on
investing ever written.
Yeah, and Thinking Fast andSlow by Daniel Kahneman.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:17):
I had to read that one twice because it was a
little over my head and I I justrefused to be confounded by it.
So I tackled it a second timeand enjoyed it.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Good you know that that had a huge impact on me
doing the great books, because Iread that and then that same
year I read like four or fiveother books that all they did
was take one idea from Kahnemanand apply it to like negotiating
or persuasion or something likethat.
And I'm like I didn't need toread these five other books,
(40:55):
Like Kahneman was kind of thesource that everyone is now
pulling from.
So it's like it's better just toread Kahneman.
It just kind of got me thinkingof, like there are source books
out there that are theimportant books and there's a
lot of books that are justderivative of that.
I don't want to waste my timereading the derivative books.
I want to first read the sourcebooks before I go back to
(41:17):
derivative books.
But yeah, that Kahneman bookwas like this is something
important.
I need to spend more timereading those.
Speaker 1 (41:26):
I'm reading, uh, seth Godin's uh, this is strategy.
Oh yeah, I'm kind of having ahard time with it.
It's a good book and he hassome really great points and
it'll jump out or once in awhile.
But, um, uh, I'm going tofinish it, I'm going to go to
the end and I might have to readit again because, I don't know,
(41:47):
it seems it doesn't seem verylinear.
It's just kind of this way andthat way and goes over here and
then back over there, and it'skind of hard for me to follow
along with what he's reallytrying to say.
And then every once in a whilehe'll just say something that
just jumps off the page andslaps you across the face, you
know.
So I enjoy that.
(42:10):
But it's cool, all right manwell merry christmas, happy new
year and, uh, we'll see you in2025 all right, see you, scott
all right bye, bye.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
True Crime Tonight
If you eat, sleep, and breathe true crime, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT is serving up your nightly fix. Five nights a week, KT STUDIOS & iHEART RADIO invite listeners to pull up a seat for an unfiltered look at the biggest cases making headlines, celebrity scandals, and the trials everyone is watching. With a mix of expert analysis, hot takes, and listener call-ins, TRUE CRIME TONIGHT goes beyond the headlines to uncover the twists, turns, and unanswered questions that keep us all obsessed—because, at TRUE CRIME TONIGHT, there’s a seat for everyone. Whether breaking down crime scene forensics, scrutinizing serial killers, or debating the most binge-worthy true crime docs, True Crime Tonight is the fresh, fast-paced, and slightly addictive home for true crime lovers.