In 2017, inspired by Tools of Titans by noted self-help author Tim Ferriss, Franklin resident Erik Rostad decided to embark on a mission to read the most canonized books in world history.
His project, which he dubbed Books of Titans, began as a journey to read 52 of those titles in a year, one per week. He enjoyed the experience so much that he decided to try it again in 2018. He repeated the process year after year until he upped the stakes in 2023.
Rostad formed an itinerary of roughly 400 notable works by combing through lists of iconic books, consulting educators and picking the brains of other avid readers. He titled his final list – which spans from The Epic of Gilgamesh to Flannery O’Connor and includes the likes of the “Declaration of Independence” – The Immortal Books.
He’s planning on spending the next decade reading these books. If that sounds a bit like homework, it kind of is. Rostad even breaks his reading schedule down into a college-esque calendar. He starts each year by reading a different version of the Bible, spends the fall and spring “semesters” reading through the Immortal Books, and takes summer and winter “breaks” to read other items. But it doesn’t feel like schoolwork for Rostad.
“I'm having the absolute time in my life now,” Rostad says, who has been the business manager at Landmark Booksellers since 2021. “[The Immortal Books] have been incredible. They’ve really blown me away.”
His goal is to “seek truth and beauty in the Immortal Books.” He shares his takeaways from each book on his podcast. And, Landmark customers can join him on the journey. There’s a Books of Titans subscription, a reading group dedicated to short reads on the list and even a section in the store titled the “Great Wall of Franklin” featuring 150-200 of the books in chronological order.
“We’re pulling books from that Great Wall now and doing one a month. But I've selected books that can, most of them, be read within two to five hours,” Rostad says.
“It's these short books that we can go through together as a community. And one of my biggest hopes for that is that we get some younger people in on that too because I think, with some of these books, if they read them, it could really set them on a life of reading.”
Rostad tries to include works that take part in the “Great Conversation,” which is essentially the historical process of writers building on and referencing each other’s works. He also left out a few titles that he had previously read. So it’s not necessarily supposed to be thought of as a definitive list, but more of a way to engage with great works of literature.
“I've been doing this thing for the last 20 years where, over time, I have bought a lot of these books. And I bought them more aspirationally,” Rostad says.
“I came to a point with my reading project where I began to learn more about myself and my own reading, and I knew that if I didn't make a plan to read these, they would just sit on my shelves the rest of my life, and I would never crack them open. So that was another reason I wanted to shift to reading the Great Books and the Immortal Books. I knew if I didn't set a plan to do it, it would never happen.”
The task can seem daunting, but Rostad says it’s a smoother process than you might think.
“I kind of thought going into it that maybe I need to get a literature degree or something to even understand what's going on here, but that’s not the case,” he says. “And a lot of these are written to where they want you to understand it. They want you to to know what's going on and not to try to confuse you.”
For those who want to join him on his journey through Landmark’s book club, the only requirement is that you buy that month’s book from the store. They meet the second Monday of each month to discuss the latest reading.
“You don't have to sign up and come to all of them. You can just kind of dip in on the ones that you want to read,” Rostad says.
“I would love for it to really become a community thing where we can get together and discuss great books and some of the ideas that have stood the test of time.”
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