The Odyssey, Book 1
The Odyssey, Book 1
Reading classics on the porch with Willow the Bengal cat
I sat down out on the porch today and read Book 1 of The Odyssey for the second time.
First of all, out on the porch in October? In Scotland? I know! It was so nice. And secondly, how come it’s the second time for Book 1? Well, that’s because I slipped off it after reading it the first time about a month ago. I didn’t take any notes that time so I couldn’t remember anything about what I’d read. This time was different. Armed with Post-it Notes, notebooks, highlighters and pens, I read it slowly and made notes. It was a good time. Willow our Bengal cat even came to join me.
Oh, and I made a video. That seems like a good way of getting my thoughts down quickly. My goal is to grow through reading these wonderful books; it’s not to create scholarly articles. So I’m hacking the Rresistance1 and procrastination by making my content more loose and fun. I talked about that also in a different video.
Names
I found the first page challenging, partly because of all the unfamiliar names and because I don’t know what went down at Troy—note to self: read the Iliad!. But by page 2 it was starting to make more sense. By the end of the chapter, I was into the story.
I did read the 79-page introduction last month, so I was slightly familiar with some of the characters and the storyline. That was helpful.
My notes started out as a list of names:
I’ll share the video and that will explain how I’m feeling at the end of Book 1.
Reading schedule
There are 24 books—they would be called chapters in another book—so I’ll have to be reading one book a day more or less to get through it by the end of the month. I can do that if I use my ‘NOT TODAY’ mantra when the resistance shows up and tries to trick me into procrastinating. I don’t want to fight the resistance; I’d rather use the tools I learned while getting sober in 2005 and just tell it, ‘not today’. In AA, they call it one day at a time.
I know I’m going to enjoy the book and I look forward to sharing the journey with you as I go through it. And if you would care to join me, I’d love to have you along!
Editions
I’m reading Emily Wilson’s translation and have two editions:
These are affiliate links and any purchases made using these links help my channel with a small commission at no cost to you. Links go to your local Amazon site, Waterstones, Blackwell’s and Bookshop.org.
Steven Pressfield talks of Resistance in his book The War of Art, which is an excellent book. But he and I disagree on the concept of having to fight it and defeat it. I choose not to capitalise the word in order not to give it power, and I have no intention of fighting it. Rather, I’m going to let go. I talk more about this kind of stuff over on my other Substack.