A fair amount of reading was done in March. While many books are in the 3-star range, I did really enjoy The Odyssey (read over two months). I finished ny #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin, read a couple of books for #192025, read two books set in big cities for #FictionalTraveler, a couple of #1001Books, and I even got a Bingo.
pickEmily Wilson's translation gets a HUGE standing O from me, and Audra McDonald's audiobook narration is unbelievably moving and deeply emotional. It's a long listen (took me 4 weeks to get through), but it's worth the commitment. And the quote here from Wilson's introduction could not be more true. The loss throughout the story is staggering in scale, brutal and overwhelming- yet the grief described is so human and so cathartic. Bravo all around.
5am flight fuel
2024 Non-Fiction Favourites: Some stellar memoirs, great art collections, fantastic works on horror, and a whole, heaping helping of why prison should be abolished, as well as some other highly educational material on topics near and dear to me.
I've found the recent, ever-evolving Twitter Discourse on The Odyssey equally maddening, absurd, and fascinating (y'know, in the train wreck way). Has anyone else seen this come through your feeds? Anyway, in this house, YES, The Odyssey is a foundational text that everyone should know about and also, we stan both Fagles and Wilson, end of. Let's have it all! More interpretation! More poetry! More lenses through which to view all of our stories!
#SundayFunday @BookmarkTavern
This is one of the many which I have, along with the Iliad: A New Translation by Peter Green. Before I had discovered these books, I did not know that they were around to make these old works an easier read. At first, they were tough but the extras that these books come with, really helped, it's been amazing, I'm reading books that I always thought would be out of my reach, I am truly grateful to these books.
pickA favourite of 2024, for sure. So many things about this just worked so well for me. A richer, more patient examination of the Odyssey than I've previously encountered in the flurry of four years of a Greek and Roman Studies BA; a focus on its language and its themes, occasionally dipping into the original Greek in a way I never had the chance to encounter; the significance of the original word choice. 1/?
so-soThere was definitely some skimming in this reread. I still got out of it what I wanted: to reacquaint myself with the plot beats and characters so I'm better prepared for any recent retellings that catch my eye; to remind myself that the further from modern sensibilities, the less likely I am to enjoy a literary classic. 🤷🏼♂️ 1/?
Always a strong argument for vengeance: the kindergarten comeback. 😛
