Welcome to Book Club

The mission of Athenaeum...

Our mission is to help revive the soul of Western Civilization through the careful study of the books that built it.

We live in a time of noise, speed, and amnesia. Few remember where we came from. Fewer still care to ask. But without memory, a culture dies. Athenaeum was founded to resist that death — not with politics or empty rhetoric, but with books, conversation, and serious thought.

This is a home for readers who still believe that ideas matter. That Plato has more to teach us than TikTok. That Augustine, Dante, Shakespeare, and Dostoevsky are not just names in a syllabus — they are guides to a deeper, more ordered life. This is the kind of reading that sharpens the mind and strengthens the spirit. Not content. Not distraction. Culture.

The West has given us the greatest works ever written. But it takes effort to read them, and even more effort to read them well. That’s what we’re doing here. Slowly. Together.

We typically read one new book every month, spread over two live sessions (bi-weekly): an intro discussion, followed by a deep-dive reflection. The sessions take place every other Tuesday (noon Eastern Time) on a private Zoom call, but they are also live streamed on our Substack.

If you want to participate in the discussions directly (with mic access), ask questions (via Zoom or Substack), and get all of our exclusive content, please consider becoming a paid member for just a few dollars per month.

Premium members get:

• Access to all bi-weekly book discussions (with mic access)

• Access to all exclusive community discussions threads

• The full archive of book reviews + our 100 Great Texts reading list

• Ability to vote on what we read next…

Note: paid subscribers via Substack will automatically receive an access link for the live calls.

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This is not school. There are no grades. No credentials. No status games. Just a community of readers serious about recovering what’s been lost — and using it to build something better.

Welcome.