The Persians | 
pickI might have bitten off more than I can chew to start off 2022, but on top of Don Quixote, #FurrowedMiddlebrowClub, #ShakespeareReadAlong, #WanderingThroughWutheringHeights, & #NYRBBookClub, I thought why not add a Greek play? I got the idea from here: shorturl.at/aoCHJ
January starts off with The Persians; it is haunting & full of ghosts & mourning. It's my first time reading it & it is very fitting for our troubled times of grief & confusion.
TheAromaofBooks Are you reading Don Quixote as part of an official buddy read, or is just a goal for this year? It's on my list, too, since it's been on my shelf for... my entire life pretty much 😂 2y
Crinoline_Laphroaig January. When I think I can read ALL the Books. 2y
batsy @TheAromaofBooks Just one of the books I had to tick off my list! It's been on my TBR that long, too 😆 2y
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batsy @Crinoline_Laphroaig We love January! 😂 2y
Cathythoughts It‘s great to make a big start to the New Year ❤️ You can do it Suba 👍❤️💫 2y
Schwifty I‘ve also had Don Quixote on my shelf for way too long. Maybe I too will finally read it this year. A friend of mine many years ago told me he believed Don Quixote was one of those books you should read every ten years because of its message. 2y
batsy @Cathythoughts Thank you, sweet Cathy 😘♥️ I'm pretty excited to try 😁 2y
batsy @Schwifty I'm about 200 pages in (the Edith Grossman translation) and can recommend it! It's not what I expected and it definitely feels like the reader is on that long journey with the Don and Sancho. 2y
Graywacke The Persians is a quirky thing. No mythology! 2y
Schwifty Yep, Edith Grossman is the edition I have. I have one of those 100 essential novel scratch off posters from pop-chart. Don Quixote is the first one. And I just keep avoiding it for some reason. 2y
batsy @Graywacke Yes! Very strange, dark, kind of like a scene of a prophetic dream straight out of Julius Caesar. 2y
batsy @Schwifty I avoided it for many years, too. It seemed daunting and like it was not my thing. But it's a whole different beast to what I expected. 2y
Graywacke @batsy i was thinking Jeremiah and lamentations. But those dreams? I might have to check Aeschylus again. 2y
batsy @Graywacke That's interesting... the Old Testament? The Bible is one thing I've not read & I still remember a professor in one of my English courses telling us that it's fundamental reading for anyone interested in Western literature. This might be the year... 😅 2y
Graywacke @batsy i read it not that long ago… well, actually I started ten years ago. Wow. Anyway, it took me several years, initially with a group and our focus was literary. (Most of us were atheist, but some were religious). It‘s a mixture if work and fun reading, but it really rewards in reading everything else. (Mind you, I don‘t think Aeschylus read it.) 2y
Graywacke @batsy of course the difference between OT mourning and this is the audience. In OT it‘s “woe is us” and here it‘s “them” (with maybe an unspoken “nah nah, we beat you” 🙂) 2y
batsy @Graywacke That is really fascinating. And reading it over years seems ideal, really. It's the sort of text one lives with. I have to seriously plan on reading it. (This week's play is Ajax by Sophocles. Have you read that one?) 2y
Graywacke @batsy The year I read Homer I also went through most, but not all, the classic Greek plays. I‘m pretty sure I read Ajax and liked it. 2y
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