Day 152
20.024 read, -1.018
The Odyssey of Homer 4-11, 387-391
May 20th
Day 141
20.011 read, +0.129
The Odyssey of Homer 349-384
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 214-224, 236-239
20.011 read, +0.129
The Odyssey of Homer 349-384
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 214-224, 236-239
May 19th
Day 140
19.220 read, +0.120
The Odyssey of Homer 343-348
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 211-213
19.220 read, +0.120
The Odyssey of Homer 343-348
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 211-213
May 18th
Day 139
19.211 read, +0.111
The Odyssey of Homer 313-342
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 194-210
19.211 read, +0.111
The Odyssey of Homer 313-342
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 194-210
May 17th
Day 138
19.164 read, +0.106
The Odyssey of Homer 274-312
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 159-193
Getting close to the end! Which is good, because vacation is next week and I'd like to be done with the Odyssey before. I won't read the Odyssey on vacation - it'd be too cumbersome relaxing and trying to read the Odyssey on an e-reader, the companion on a regular book and a little paper pad for notes! So if I don't finish before I'll have to wait until my return, but I think I may just finish before.
I have a few books on "queue" to read next. Neverworld for the general book club, Love in the Time of Cholera for the lit club, and a new general club pick about to be selected in a few days (all a part of my challenge). For my vacation reading though, I was thinking of putting them all aside and taking up Middlemarch, which I read on vacation some years ago and never finished! So I thought it'd be nice to pick it back up again on vacation.
19.164 read, +0.106
The Odyssey of Homer 274-312
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 159-193
Getting close to the end! Which is good, because vacation is next week and I'd like to be done with the Odyssey before. I won't read the Odyssey on vacation - it'd be too cumbersome relaxing and trying to read the Odyssey on an e-reader, the companion on a regular book and a little paper pad for notes! So if I don't finish before I'll have to wait until my return, but I think I may just finish before.
I have a few books on "queue" to read next. Neverworld for the general book club, Love in the Time of Cholera for the lit club, and a new general club pick about to be selected in a few days (all a part of my challenge). For my vacation reading though, I was thinking of putting them all aside and taking up Middlemarch, which I read on vacation some years ago and never finished! So I thought it'd be nice to pick it back up again on vacation.
May 16th
Day 137
19.090 read, +0.074
The Odyssey of Homer 230-273
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 137-158
19.090 read, +0.074
The Odyssey of Homer 230-273
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 137-158
May 15th
Day 136
19.024 read, +0.050
The Odyssey of Homer 202-229
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 119-136
The Odyssey read is going great. This Odysseus is quite a character! It's strange to think the same man or at least the same tradition created both this and the Iliad. In so many ways these two works are similar, but in so many ways they are very different, so different that the heroic and moral values in the Iliad (so important to the Greeks) are often turned on their heads in the Odyssey. To me it shows a great depth of culture; instead of getting the sense of a rigid culture with a set of strict beliefs and values as I often think of ancient cultures, I instead with reading both these works get a sense of a somewhat diverse, multi-leveled culture.
Also, the companion is fabulous. I was worried beforehand, as it said it was for the "beginner". Not that I'm an expert at all, but after the Iliad read, the Iliad companion and thread discussion, I thought a "beginner" companion to the Odyssey may not have so much value. But it's great and is actually better than the Iliad companion. Which is funny, since the Wilcock Iliad companion I found highly recommended at multiple places online (it is good though) while the Odyssey companion I had to search for and just choose one of many (I chose this one because it was based on the Lattimore translation). What's even funnier though is in the preface, Jones mentions Wilcock as inspiration, and that Wilcock actually proofread this companion for Jones!
I just find that the companion really broadens the horizons of my understanding of the Odyssey so much. Sure some notes are repetitive or unnecessary or I already know, but there's many great notes. And Jones begins each book with general notes on that entire book which are always interesting, before delving into specific line by line notes.
19.024 read, +0.050
The Odyssey of Homer 202-229
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 119-136
The Odyssey read is going great. This Odysseus is quite a character! It's strange to think the same man or at least the same tradition created both this and the Iliad. In so many ways these two works are similar, but in so many ways they are very different, so different that the heroic and moral values in the Iliad (so important to the Greeks) are often turned on their heads in the Odyssey. To me it shows a great depth of culture; instead of getting the sense of a rigid culture with a set of strict beliefs and values as I often think of ancient cultures, I instead with reading both these works get a sense of a somewhat diverse, multi-leveled culture.
Also, the companion is fabulous. I was worried beforehand, as it said it was for the "beginner". Not that I'm an expert at all, but after the Iliad read, the Iliad companion and thread discussion, I thought a "beginner" companion to the Odyssey may not have so much value. But it's great and is actually better than the Iliad companion. Which is funny, since the Wilcock Iliad companion I found highly recommended at multiple places online (it is good though) while the Odyssey companion I had to search for and just choose one of many (I chose this one because it was based on the Lattimore translation). What's even funnier though is in the preface, Jones mentions Wilcock as inspiration, and that Wilcock actually proofread this companion for Jones!
I just find that the companion really broadens the horizons of my understanding of the Odyssey so much. Sure some notes are repetitive or unnecessary or I already know, but there's many great notes. And Jones begins each book with general notes on that entire book which are always interesting, before delving into specific line by line notes.
An update on the film challenge and book and film reviews
It's still going well! The films I've seen since my last update on it are: La Terra Trema, Dead Poet's Society, American Graffiti, The Sound Barrier, The Magnificent Ambersons, Sense and Sensibility, Ballad of a Soldier, King Kong, Children of Paradise and Wuthering Heights. With a one-a-week goal, I'm perfectly on track right now.
Now that I'm completely caught up on the reading challenge, I hope to start catching up on reviews for both books and films again soon. I have a vacation next week, but after that I will start getting down to business, if not before. However, I expect the reviews to be much shorter in the future for the most part. I enjoy writing them, but unfortunately there just isn't enough time in the day for everything I like to do! So to help catch up and to take less time, I will try to make the reviews briefer, and perhaps even as short as just the rating! I haven't decided exactly yet. But either way, reviews will be coming (hopefully pouring in) soon! :)
Now that I'm completely caught up on the reading challenge, I hope to start catching up on reviews for both books and films again soon. I have a vacation next week, but after that I will start getting down to business, if not before. However, I expect the reviews to be much shorter in the future for the most part. I enjoy writing them, but unfortunately there just isn't enough time in the day for everything I like to do! So to help catch up and to take less time, I will try to make the reviews briefer, and perhaps even as short as just the rating! I haven't decided exactly yet. But either way, reviews will be coming (hopefully pouring in) soon! :)
May 14th
Day 135
18.238 read, +0.046
The Odyssey of Homer 171-201
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 98-118
18.238 read, +0.046
The Odyssey of Homer 171-201
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 98-118
May 13th
Day 134
18.186 read, +0.036
The Odyssey of Homer 143-170
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 77-97
18.186 read, +0.036
The Odyssey of Homer 143-170
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 77-97
May 12th
Day 133
18.137 read, +0.029
The Odyssey of Homer 140-142
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 68-76
18.137 read, +0.029
The Odyssey of Homer 140-142
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 68-76
May 11th
Day 132
18.125 read, +0.017
The Odyssey of Homer 104-139
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 48-67
FYI, I'm not deliberately making the names of the Odyssey text and the companion worded different just for fun! I'm just writing them the way they're worded for each book's title. Lattimore's Odyssey text is called "The Odyssey of Homer" and the companion is actually called "Homer's Odyssey, A Companion to the English Translation of Richard Lattimore", but I thought the latter's title was too long to write out every day for page counting so I took the liberty to shorten it.
18.125 read, +0.017
The Odyssey of Homer 104-139
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 48-67
FYI, I'm not deliberately making the names of the Odyssey text and the companion worded different just for fun! I'm just writing them the way they're worded for each book's title. Lattimore's Odyssey text is called "The Odyssey of Homer" and the companion is actually called "Homer's Odyssey, A Companion to the English Translation of Richard Lattimore", but I thought the latter's title was too long to write out every day for page counting so I took the liberty to shorten it.
May 10th
Day 131
18.069 read, +0.003
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 27-47
The Odyssey of Homer 62-103
Notice anything different? Oh yeah, that's right, I am now in the POSITIVE compared to my goal! To put it in perspective, the last time that happened was in the beginning of January! And a month ago I was over four books behind my goal. So it took some time and effort, but I've now caught up to my goal and am now on track! Woohoo! I have to celebrate a little. :)
18.069 read, +0.003
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion 27-47
The Odyssey of Homer 62-103
Notice anything different? Oh yeah, that's right, I am now in the POSITIVE compared to my goal! To put it in perspective, the last time that happened was in the beginning of January! And a month ago I was over four books behind my goal. So it took some time and effort, but I've now caught up to my goal and am now on track! Woohoo! I have to celebrate a little. :)
May 9th
Day 130
18.006 read, -0.018
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion xii-xiv, 1-26
The Odyssey of Homer 29-61
I am SO CLOSE to being caught up with my goal! It was just killing me that I couldn't completely catch up today, since as of yesterday I was only 38 pages behind and combined with my normal daily goal I only needed to read 80 pages to catch up. But of course, I've finished the easy GoT which I could speed through and read over 100 pages a day, and now I'm with the Odyssey which is a bit more challenging.
Even if I were just reading the text to the Odyssey, it'd be somewhat easy compared to some things I've read this year (coughleavesofgrasscough). But I'm not. I'm in a way making a study of this. The companion is basically annotations, but they are not noted in the text, so I never know really which lines are annotated. But luckily, the companion breaks the annotations down into sections sort of by scenes in a chapter, and announces the line numbers of said section each time before beginning. So what I'm doing is looking at the "scene" line numbers in the companion, reading that scene in the Odyssey and then going and reading the annotations for it in the companion right after, and then continuing onto the next scene.
I've found this is best. I can't be going every few lines to see which annotations may have been made on them, that's just too cumbersome and anyway not preferable even if it weren't cumbersome, since the companion also posts general annotations relating to entire scenes before specific line by line annotations. And I tried going book by book starting with book 1, but when I noticed the "scene" sections in the companion, I thought that a better way than entire books, more immediate and my mind will still be on that scene.
It worked great with book 2. And then, book 3, the companion has the entire book as one scene lol, and that's as far as I've gotten.
And the way I'm reading is, the Odyssey on my e-reader, the paper book on the companion, my smartphone for any internet/wikipedia/google queries and a little notebook and pen for notes on the companion, of which I've made a few already (I can makes notes electronically for the Odyssey itself on my e-reader). So that's quite a spread and it does feel more of studying but so be it.
I've described the above so it can become clear why reading the Odyssey is so much more time-consuming than say Game of Thrones, if anyone was curious why. It was all I could do just to get to 60 pages today, when just the other week I got to 150 pages in a day with another book. And what timing! Right as I was about to catch up! Couldn't GoT have been 100 pages longer so I could've caught up completely the next day and *then* started the Odyssey, lol?
But as it is it's still good. If I can manage another 60 exactly tomorrow (the 18 I'm still behind plus the 42 I need to read daily) I'll be completely caught up, and then after that it's just 42 a day, whew. Oh, well I am going on vacation in a few weeks, so I'll probably try to get a few hundred pages ahead so I can take a break during vacation if I want.
18.006 read, -0.018
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion xii-xiv, 1-26
The Odyssey of Homer 29-61
I am SO CLOSE to being caught up with my goal! It was just killing me that I couldn't completely catch up today, since as of yesterday I was only 38 pages behind and combined with my normal daily goal I only needed to read 80 pages to catch up. But of course, I've finished the easy GoT which I could speed through and read over 100 pages a day, and now I'm with the Odyssey which is a bit more challenging.
Even if I were just reading the text to the Odyssey, it'd be somewhat easy compared to some things I've read this year (coughleavesofgrasscough). But I'm not. I'm in a way making a study of this. The companion is basically annotations, but they are not noted in the text, so I never know really which lines are annotated. But luckily, the companion breaks the annotations down into sections sort of by scenes in a chapter, and announces the line numbers of said section each time before beginning. So what I'm doing is looking at the "scene" line numbers in the companion, reading that scene in the Odyssey and then going and reading the annotations for it in the companion right after, and then continuing onto the next scene.
I've found this is best. I can't be going every few lines to see which annotations may have been made on them, that's just too cumbersome and anyway not preferable even if it weren't cumbersome, since the companion also posts general annotations relating to entire scenes before specific line by line annotations. And I tried going book by book starting with book 1, but when I noticed the "scene" sections in the companion, I thought that a better way than entire books, more immediate and my mind will still be on that scene.
It worked great with book 2. And then, book 3, the companion has the entire book as one scene lol, and that's as far as I've gotten.
And the way I'm reading is, the Odyssey on my e-reader, the paper book on the companion, my smartphone for any internet/wikipedia/google queries and a little notebook and pen for notes on the companion, of which I've made a few already (I can makes notes electronically for the Odyssey itself on my e-reader). So that's quite a spread and it does feel more of studying but so be it.
I've described the above so it can become clear why reading the Odyssey is so much more time-consuming than say Game of Thrones, if anyone was curious why. It was all I could do just to get to 60 pages today, when just the other week I got to 150 pages in a day with another book. And what timing! Right as I was about to catch up! Couldn't GoT have been 100 pages longer so I could've caught up completely the next day and *then* started the Odyssey, lol?
But as it is it's still good. If I can manage another 60 exactly tomorrow (the 18 I'm still behind plus the 42 I need to read daily) I'll be completely caught up, and then after that it's just 42 a day, whew. Oh, well I am going on vacation in a few weeks, so I'll probably try to get a few hundred pages ahead so I can take a break during vacation if I want.
May 8th
Day 129
17.204 read, -0.038
A Game of Thrones 740-855
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion vi-xi
Today I finished Game of Thrones! That was LONG. It definitely ends with a few bangs along the way. It'll be awhile, if ever, before I get to the sequel, but I think I may eventually just to see what happens, because even though it's long it's still a fast enough read. But now I can watch the tv series that a friend is waiting on me for! I've heard from others that quality decreases on the book series as it progresses, and it seems like there may be no end in sight, and I didn't think the quality on the first one was extraordinary anyway, so if I do continue, it'll probably be just to the second or third book and then quit and save myself time. If I knew there was a definite ending to the series, I may be more inclined to finish it. But you never can tell on these things.
So now it's time to start the Odyssey. I just dipped my toes in today, so to speak, reading a little of the introduction to the companion, which by the way is the companion to the Lattimore version written by Peter Jones. When I read the Iliad earlier this year, I skipped the intro and notes and didn't read the companion until after, all to avoid too many spoilers, and I regretted it. Reading the notes and companion after, it was almost like having to read the book all over again or losing the context of most notes.
So this time I'm reading it all together. There are no real notes with the text this time, so it's just a matter of reading the companion along with the actual text. I'm still going to skip the text intro because I started it and it seems to go in depth in discussing the entire plot, so it's just way too spoilery and I can easily read that at the end without having to re-read the book. But I am reading the intro to the companion, which is just basics and not very spoilery.
17.204 read, -0.038
A Game of Thrones 740-855
Homer's Odyssey, A Companion vi-xi
Today I finished Game of Thrones! That was LONG. It definitely ends with a few bangs along the way. It'll be awhile, if ever, before I get to the sequel, but I think I may eventually just to see what happens, because even though it's long it's still a fast enough read. But now I can watch the tv series that a friend is waiting on me for! I've heard from others that quality decreases on the book series as it progresses, and it seems like there may be no end in sight, and I didn't think the quality on the first one was extraordinary anyway, so if I do continue, it'll probably be just to the second or third book and then quit and save myself time. If I knew there was a definite ending to the series, I may be more inclined to finish it. But you never can tell on these things.
So now it's time to start the Odyssey. I just dipped my toes in today, so to speak, reading a little of the introduction to the companion, which by the way is the companion to the Lattimore version written by Peter Jones. When I read the Iliad earlier this year, I skipped the intro and notes and didn't read the companion until after, all to avoid too many spoilers, and I regretted it. Reading the notes and companion after, it was almost like having to read the book all over again or losing the context of most notes.
So this time I'm reading it all together. There are no real notes with the text this time, so it's just a matter of reading the companion along with the actual text. I'm still going to skip the text intro because I started it and it seems to go in depth in discussing the entire plot, so it's just way too spoilery and I can easily read that at the end without having to re-read the book. But I am reading the intro to the companion, which is just basics and not very spoilery.
May 6th
Day 127
16.230 read, -0.188
A Game of Thrones 498-627
I am *finally* less than one book behind my goal! :D I'm now only 188 pages away from where I should be, which is the best I've done since January! Hopefully, I'll be caught up in a few days, sometime this week.
A Game of Thrones is going well. It's certainly readable and the world-building and overall plot arcs are absorbing, and I like how he cleverly is constructing a fantasy epic but building it around a murder/mystery/thriller premise of who killed Jon Arryn/who's really the bad guys.
But, I find his writing style somewhat mediocre really. He gets a pass for having a fantasy world where it's harder to criticise the "realism" of it, but I still don't feel like the characters always stay so true to themselves and instead are manipulated by the writers to further the plot. For instance, would Catelyn really decide, after meeting with Robb, to make way for Riverrun to see her father and brother instead of going back to Winterfell where her poor crippled boy has been left alone? I don't think so. Or, though it didn't happen, would Ned have really had the ship containing his daughters stop at Dragonstone, where he has no ideas of the intentions or loyalties of Stannis? And I could go on and on but those are some recent examples.
Also, I feel like he tries hard to infuse good and bad into certain characters but he often lapses into caricatures. Prime example - Viserys. I mean, really? Even given his inbred lineage and his unquenchable thirst for power and the different world, it still comes off as unreal that he'd be so stupid. He's really more of a caricature than a real person.
Anyway, those who love the books will probably easily disagree with those examples and quickly explain them away, but I could give much lengthier lists if I were inclined to. But this is not a bad book. In fact, for fantasy, I'd say it's a pretty good book and I only notice those things because otherwise it's good.
I can't think of this as high literature, not even just contained to the fantasy realm. Instead, I think of it as more of a grand sprawling soap opera epic with mysteries, twists, turns and cliffhangers, and thought of as a soap opera, it's immensely entertaining. Let me contrast that with say The Name of the Wind, which I thought was fantastic. That book has philosophy and some great messages and such wrapped around a great story. This book doesn't have any philosophy or messages really except the ordinary good vs evil with some in-between characters too.
16.230 read, -0.188
A Game of Thrones 498-627
I am *finally* less than one book behind my goal! :D I'm now only 188 pages away from where I should be, which is the best I've done since January! Hopefully, I'll be caught up in a few days, sometime this week.
A Game of Thrones is going well. It's certainly readable and the world-building and overall plot arcs are absorbing, and I like how he cleverly is constructing a fantasy epic but building it around a murder/mystery/thriller premise of who killed Jon Arryn/who's really the bad guys.
But, I find his writing style somewhat mediocre really. He gets a pass for having a fantasy world where it's harder to criticise the "realism" of it, but I still don't feel like the characters always stay so true to themselves and instead are manipulated by the writers to further the plot. For instance, would Catelyn really decide, after meeting with Robb, to make way for Riverrun to see her father and brother instead of going back to Winterfell where her poor crippled boy has been left alone? I don't think so. Or, though it didn't happen, would Ned have really had the ship containing his daughters stop at Dragonstone, where he has no ideas of the intentions or loyalties of Stannis? And I could go on and on but those are some recent examples.
Also, I feel like he tries hard to infuse good and bad into certain characters but he often lapses into caricatures. Prime example - Viserys. I mean, really? Even given his inbred lineage and his unquenchable thirst for power and the different world, it still comes off as unreal that he'd be so stupid. He's really more of a caricature than a real person.
Anyway, those who love the books will probably easily disagree with those examples and quickly explain them away, but I could give much lengthier lists if I were inclined to. But this is not a bad book. In fact, for fantasy, I'd say it's a pretty good book and I only notice those things because otherwise it's good.
I can't think of this as high literature, not even just contained to the fantasy realm. Instead, I think of it as more of a grand sprawling soap opera epic with mysteries, twists, turns and cliffhangers, and thought of as a soap opera, it's immensely entertaining. Let me contrast that with say The Name of the Wind, which I thought was fantastic. That book has philosophy and some great messages and such wrapped around a great story. This book doesn't have any philosophy or messages really except the ordinary good vs evil with some in-between characters too.
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