Whew, a whirlwind of catching up with the blog posts!
As you can see glancing back the last week or two, I've been reading slower. I made great strides with Shutter Island, then lost it going back to the Iliad.
And I'm OK with that. I still feel I'm doing good - I think I only read maybe seven or so books in all last year, so to already be there and ahead of it by March feels great. Of course, it would feel better to be caught up to the goal, lol.
But I realise the more difficult books I need to read slower. That's why Shutter Island was so fast. Not especially difficult, and knowing the story from the film made it a breeze. The Iliad was especially challenging because I was reading through the notes this last week or so, and that required a lot of going back and forth from notes to section and re-reading some sections (which I didn't count the re-reads, which in a way was most of the Iliad test) as I went to understand the notes.
But I finished the notes (yay!) and now for the Iliad, I only have the introduction left which should be faster, and also I ordered the companion book by Wilcock which I'm excited to read. Heh, I know it may sound strange, excited to read a companion book to an old classic I just read and found hard, but oddly I found that re-reading it with the notes this last week or so, I almost enjoyed it more, seeing it from new perspectives and with new background info. So I think that will continue with the companion book.
For instance, even Lattimore, who's very faithful to the original text, just gave us everyone's names without translation. But in Ancient Greek, apparently everyone's names actually meant something. They weren't just names like so many of ours today, they translated into everyday words. Sort of like Native American names in a way.
Anyway, it was very interesting the few notes that told of some name translations. Like, one poor man's name translated as "dung man". Wow, some parents there, huh? Heh. It was in relation to his son being better at everything and his son having a better name. I'm really OK with delving so deep into a classic such as this because you don't only learn about the book itself but about the culture and about history and about thinking at that time so it's fascinated me more than I originally expected going into it.
Anyway, I finished up the notes right as the next book club pick was announced. Well, it was a lottery month for the literary club, so the winner picked it (hi, issybird!). Turn, Magic Wheel. The author's name Dawn Powell sounds vaguely familiar, but I wonder if I'm thinking of another author with a similar name, but I don't know if I've ever heard of the book, so knowing it's literary and supposed to be good, it's fun going into a book knowing almost nothing about it.
It was hard at first, and in a way reminded me of Fitzgerald, crossed with Dorothy Parker. The writing wasn't straight-forward like most novels, it was more train-of-thought for a bit, and a lot of thoughts.
But now that I'm into it I'm enjoying it more and more so far. The writer's wit is great and she really slams the rich of NYC in the 1930s. I've actually lived in NYC before, so it's very interesting reading a book that's such a part of the city at another era. She mentions many particular locations and streets and things that I recognise and some that I even lived beside, and it's very interesting to imagine how it was in the 30s there where I lived. I know there's plenty of old NYC novels but this one really plops you down on the street right in the middle and describes the streets, the people, the places there.
The first laugh-out-loud part of the book for me is the first page when a character in the book recalls how he had considered settling in Middle America where he grew up, taking over his uncle's shoe factory. But his uncle told him (paraphrasing), "Son, you'd be no good in the factory. Here's a hundred dollars, now go somewhere far away."
Day 70
Total - 8 books 3 pages
Result - 1 book 247 pages to reach goal
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