Essential Reading

 
 

Odyssey coffee is your vigorous refuge for thinkers (and readers)…

How could you not expect a reading list from a classics professor who built a coffeehouse?

When you’re ready to launch your own philosophical quest, here’s some essential reading at Odyssey Coffee. From here on out promise to yourself that you will refrain from making any claims about these books until you have read them in their entirety.

Because what is the philosophical quest if not a quest for honesty?

  1. Iliad by Homer

    • Get Joe Sach’s translation.

  2. Odyssey by Homer

    • Get Allen Mandelbaum’s translation.

  3. Anything by Plato

    • If you’re only going to read one thing by Plato, read the Apology with the West & West Four Texts on Socrates. Anything beyond that, get the complete works edited by John Cooper.

    • With Plato, the main thing is just to read him.

    • And come to Civic Quest!

  4. Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle

    • Get Joe Sach’s translation.

  5. Politics by Aristotle

    • Get Joe Sach’s translation.

  6. On Friendship by Cicero

    • Get the translation by Philip Freeman published by Princeton U. Press.

  7. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

    • Get the translation by C. R. Haines for Loeb Classical Library.

    • Skip every single introduction out there and just read the freakin’ text. Carry this book with you everywhere you go.

  8. The Torah (aka Pentateuch), Psalms, Proverbs, Job

    • Get Robert Alter’s translations. If you only read one text, read Genesis with Alter’s translation and commentary. To dig deeper, check out the NET Bible’s translation notes.

  9. Any of Paul’s letters

    • Forget genuine versus deuteropauline, just read at least five, start to finish in one sitting each. To dig deeper, check out the NET Bible’s translation notes.

  10. Gospel of Matthew

    • Pick a translation and read the whole text in no more than two sittings. To dig deeper, check out the NET Bible’s translation notes.

  11. Gospel of John

    • Pick a translation and read it in no more than two sittings. To dig deeper, check out the NET Bible’s translation notes.

  12. Second Treatise of Government by John Locke

    • Get the Oxford World’s Classic edition, skip all intros and read the text itself.

  13. Declaration of Independence

    • Read it twice in one sitting. Now that you have read Locke’s Second Treatise (above), you know that when the Declaration of Independence claims that “all men are created equal,” it refers to all human beings and by “equal” it means with respect to a natural right to rule other human beings — the (true) idea being that no human being is born with a right to tell other human beings what to do, therefore the only just government is one of consent.

  14. U.S. Constitution

    • Read the preamble twice in one sitting, skim the articles, read the amendments twice in one sitting.

  15. As A Man Thinketh by James Allen

    • Published in 1903. Get the St. Martin’s edition.

  16. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill

    • Published in 1937. Get the St. Martin’s edition.

  17. The Hobbit & The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien

  18. Thou Shall Prosper: Ten Commandments for Making Money by Rabbi Daniel Lapin

  19. The War of Art by Steven Pressfield

  20. There’s No Free Lunch: 250 Economic Truths by David Bahnsen

 

Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.

— Benjamin Franklin