The Classical Mind Newsletter for January 19, 2024
On Re-Reading, Friendship and the Common Good, Dragons by Devin Johnston, The Exclamation Point, The Mountain of Ascent, Creative Writing at the CIA, and President John Tyler
Housekeeping
Our most recent episode on Nicomachean Ethics is out now! You can listen or watch if you haven’t already!
On the note of watching it, we recently received this encouraging comment at our YouTube channel: “Just discovered this channel, you have way too few subscribers! Keep up the great work!” So, if you agree with the commenter, go subscribe!
- has started his Vulgate podcast over at . You can find his most recent episode here.
Our February book is Julius Caesar by Shakespeare and we’ll be joined by a special guest: Heidi White from
! We’re very excited for this episode.
On Re-Reading
“I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.” -C.S. Lewis
Re-reading books is a wonderful practice. It’s like revisiting an old friend. Every time you reread a book, new things will stand out to you. The book will speak to you in a different way than it did before. My personal theory is that this is because the meaning of a book isn’t static; it cannot be chalked up exclusively to authorial intention. Rather, meaning comes form the conversation that occurs between author and reader. This is why a book might mean something different to us at one moment and something else the next time we read it.
Joel Miller discusses the practice of re-reading here. What are some of your favorite re-reads? Are you planning on re-reading anything this year? I’m currently re-reading The Hobbit with our oldest son, Jude. This is his first read through but my third or fourth. What fun it’s been!
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