inspired by rebels

developing taste with pre-20th century classics

AI is generating prolific amounts of content, and it's likely to get even better next year.

Despite all the leaps AI technology is making, it still lacks so-called taste.

The taste to look at a flower and admire it.
The taste to look at a painting and enjoy it.
The taste to read literature and say, "F*ck, that's beautiful."

So, I believe it is more important than ever to develop great taste.

In an attempt to do that, next year, I've decided to read only classics written before 1900—books that have stood the test of time and are likely to survive the next 100 years.

These books have shaped our collective consciousness and western civilization at large. So, I won't just read them passively. I'll try to understand what made them classics and share it with you if it helped.

Given my limited reading time of 15 hours and 2 books per month, I have planned it across 2025.

Here is the list:

  1. January:
    a. Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (1866) ~14.5 reading hours.
  2. February:
    a. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (1891) ~5.5 reading hours
    b. The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (1532) ~3.5 reading hours
  3. March:
    a. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1823) ~5.2 reading hours
    b. The Art of War by Sun Tzu (5th century BCE) ~1 reading hour
  4. April:
    a. The Iliad by Homer (8th century BC) ~13 reading hours
  5. May:
    a. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813) ~8.5 reading hours
  6. June:
    a. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884) ~8 reading hours
  7. July:
    a. Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith (1892) ~3.2 reading hours
    b. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1321) ~9.5 reading hours split
  8. August:
    a. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1321) ~4.5 reading hours remaining
  9. September:
    a. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (1860) ~12.5 reading hours
  10. October:
    a. The Republic by Plato (c. 375 BCE) ~14.5 reading hours
  11. November:
    a. Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche (1886) ~4.5 reading hours
  12. December:
    a. The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (14th century) ~8 reading hours

If I'm done with the above list:

  1. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (1867)
  2. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
  3. Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope (1857)
  4. Metamorphoses by Ovid (8 AD)
  5. Paradise Lost by John Milton (1667)
  6. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (1862)
  7. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844)
  8. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes (1605 & 1615)

If you want to discuss any of the above books, write to me at gottalivesheev@gmail.com

#AI #books #classics #taste #time