Reading Recap: July 2026

Lewis • Guite • Plato

During July, I returned to Plato after a month of King Arthur in June. I read the Phaedrus and Alcibiades dialogues. The Tripartite soul shows up in Phaedrus. I had heard about it but hadn’t yet encountered it in Plato’s works. Using the analogy of a chariot, the idea is that both gods and humans have a soul made of three parts:

• The Rational - the charioteer - thinking part

• The Spirited - the white horse - emotional part

• The Appetitive - the black horse - desiring part

The soul is a self-moving thing and is in motion, but the direction of a soul is largely dictated by the balance and reigning of the spirited and appetitive sides. I found this analogy to be very interesting and talked about it in episode 296 of the podcast:

I also obtained an advanced copy of The Coming of Arthur and thoroughly enjoyed it. There’s a reference to to Aeschylus’ Oresteia that is just sublime. I can’t wait to read the final two books in the series. You can pre-order a copy here.

The Mirror, the Mask, & the Masterpiece by Peter Kreeft was a very helpful book tied to Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. That was the book for my July Short Great Books reading group and Kreeft’s work helped in my preparation. That was the first book I’d read by Kreeft and I liked it very much.

The additional copy of Phaedrus was because I read it twice, first in the Complete Works and then second in that Oxford World’s Classics version translated by Robin Waterfield.

Melville • Plato

I’m currently reading Billy Budd by Herman Melville in preparation for the August Short Great Books reading group. After that, my August focus will be on Plato. Here are the dialogues I have coming up:

• Second Alcibiades

• Hipparchus

• Rival Lovers

• Theages

• Charmides

My plan is to read through all of Plato’s dialogues by the end of November. I’ve currently read 13 of them and have 20+ to go.

July Book Purchases

I reigned in my book purchases in July. Here are the five I purchased from top to bottom:

• Phaedrus / Plato (Robin Waterfield translation) - wanted to read a second translation and another introduction

• Billy Budd / Herman Melville - purchased a second copy (my other is the Penguin Classics) for the purpose of reading the introduction. I’m reading Billy Budd twice in preparation of my reading group

• Ginkgo / Peter Crane - I’m quietly building my arsenal of books about trees that I’ll be reading during December of this year. My absolute most favoritest tree in all the world is the Ginkgo tree, so I can’t wait to read this one.

• Revolution & Bonhoeffer / Eric Metaxas - we had an event with Eric Metaxas at Landmark Booksellers this past month and so I got signed and personalized copies of these two books.

I set aside one post per month to highlight my reading life. Books of Titans is a reading project aimed at seeking the ancient paths by reading The Great Books by 200 Authors chronologically over the next 40 years. Thank you for following my journey.