Today, I want to depart from the usual cadence of breaking down a particular book or author of the Western Tradition. Every now and then it’s important to remind ourselves:
Why do we read books in the first place?
We often have a felt sense of lack in our education, that something is missing. But today I’d like to give a more positive vision of what you are looking for in life, how you can find it, and how you can transform your life.
If you count yourself among those who feel a general dissatisfaction with life — not simply with the political state of the world, but with the sense that something is deeply missing from your own life, or that the world is not how it should be — there’s a reason why.
Actually, there are many reasons why, but I reckon the main reason is that the modern world holds comfort and security as the highest goods. Climb the social ladder, get a good salary, buy the picket fence home, and retire in luxury. Yet the felt sense of this modern philosophy of safety and comfort continues crushing the soul of modern man.
This was my issue in university studying computer science. Though I had a good past and bright future by material terms, my days were accompanied by a lingering sense of dread, as if the universe were fundamentally broken. Like I was a marionette controlled by puppet strings of an invisible force to nefarious ends.
I recall confessing this despair to a professor of mine who gave me an odd suggestion:
“Read some books…”
The Count & the Philosopher
To a socially mobile careerist concerned with money, status, and material gain, nothing seemed less sensible than this advice to read. Nonetheless, when a young man is spiritually desolate and desperate, it’s often the case that he takes desperate measures.
Against all odds, I did the unthinkable and began reading books.
It was not much later that I discovered the joys of The Count of Monte Cristo — a masterpiece that unleashed a fervor and restless yearning for truth and adventure that has not left my soul 12 years later to the day.
The reason why I fell in love with Monte Cristo, and literature as such, was that for the first time in my adult life I felt known. I felt another human being revealed a truth of my soul to myself that no one else could — not even my closest family and friends.
Greek philosophers call this experience self-knowledge.
And speaking of the Greeks, Monte Cristo may have lit the spark, but it was Plato that transformed my life.
If you ever read Plato’s Apology (and everyone should read Plato’s Apology before they die) you’ll know a defiant Socrates is tried and put to death for “corrupting the youth.”
What’s most surprising about this trial, however, is that Socrates hardly seems concerned with proving himself innocent. You’d think a man whose life is in danger would be concerned with appeasing the crowd by any means, but Socrates does the opposite.
To paraphrase him, he basically tells the audience:
“The unexamined life is not worth living. I will practice philosophy until I die, and if there’s an afterlife, I’ll keep practicing philosophy there too.”
In other words, Socrates asserts Truth exists and will set you free, if you dare follow it. But you have to love Truth even more than life itself.
Christians might recognize an echo of this in Scripture:
“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
That Platonic text singlehandedly changed the trajectory of my life. It gave me the courage to quit my job, move to a new city alone, and follow the “daimonion” inside me that demanded I seek Truth and adventure.
I reasoned:
“Comfort, safety, and security are killing me. The Great Books bring me vitality. It may be insane to abandon my career and the years of study that preceded it, but my spirit is calling me…
Like Socrates, I too will pursue truth even in the face of death. And if I die, I die, but alas, even then I shall be obedient to this spirit in the afterlife.”
The good news is I did not die. Rather, for the first time in my life, I became alive.
What the Books did for me (and can do for you)
I made that pact nearly a decade ago, and while by material terms it was the hardest choice of my life, by spiritual terms it was the decision that led me on a path of lasting and substantive meaning.
I tell you this not because I count myself special (far from it) but because my story is not special at all. Much of the pre-modern Western Tradition exhorted all of mankind to do what I did — read the Great Books, implement their wisdom, and follow truth:
Reading the Great Books in pursuit of truth turns your life into an adventure.
It lets you “know yourself,” as Socrates urges, and you cannot attain the fullness of life’s joys, peace, or love whilst remaining a stranger to yourself.
Life is good indeed, my friend, if we dare have the gall to believe it.
And thus I encourage you, dear reader, to join me on this journey for Truth.
A Community of Readers
It is never too late to start reading the Great Books. In fact, there is never a better time to start than right now. Whether you’re in your 20s, figuring things out in your 40s, or settling down to a well-deserved retirement, you cannot overestimate how transformative these books can be for the nourishment of your soul and your life’s adventure.
And if you would like to personally join me and an entire community on this adventure, I highly encourage you to check out the Athenaeum Book Club.
I helped start this project a year ago, and we cannot be happier with what’s transpired:
— 45,000 total members
— 7th largest literature Substack in the world
— Nearly 300,000 followers and millions of impressions on X
In other words, there is a shift taking place in the culture. Thousands of existing members can attest to everything I’ve written here today:
The Great Books will change your life, if you dare believe in Truth, and pursue it.
We are currently reading Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov, which we will cover over this month. The next discussion, focusing on Books 5–9, is on August 18 at noon ET. Please join us — all sessions are recorded if you can’t make it live!
If you’re new here, definitely join our book club discussions if you can. They take place biweekly, and have been nothing short of electric of late. And if you can’t make it, everything is recorded!
Very well said...
Great post! Your personal story and perspective is powerful, and you raise an important point that often gets missed: we don't read great literature primarily to be culturally literate or learn big words or for critical thinking or even to be entertained (though those are all side benefits). We read great books to be transformed, to become more fully human, to have our lives changed. Thanks for articulating that so well.