The Odyssey was more of a slog than I had expected, perhaps because I threw myself into the recent, almost edgy Eickhoff translation expecting it to have the same feel as a modern-day novel. Notes I wrote in my leatherbound journal:

“Readable translation still can’t resolve Odysseus’ innate, culturally-inherent misogyny or over-inflated self worth for my modern point of reference. Learned much, but glad to be done.”

I think I’m particularly sensitive to what I see as a double-standard in respect to adultery. Of course, I’m sure this is just the proverbial way it was, but it still miffs me that Odysseus gets away with banging himself around the god- and nymph- strewn world as par for the course, while dull Penelope rots back in Ithaca weeping through twenty years of chaste days that are all echoes of each other. The girl, I’m thinking, doesn’t have a whole lot of hobbies or adventures.

Still, the read inspired me to go off and look a bunch of stuff up. First thing I was forcefully reminded of: The Greek pantheon of Gods goes way beyond Zeus, Athene and Aphrodite. There are probably about infinity gods and some of them even have the same names. Keeping them even roughly sorted is a prime challenge, though Eickhoff’s footnotes are a–hah!–godsend.

To keep things thematically tight, I should probably roll right into Aeschylus at this point, but I think I’ll spring back into the modern world for a while and read David McCullough’s 1776. My knowledge of American history is dreadful (I totally blame my middle school/high school teachers for this; other than one brilliant constitutional teacher in 8th grade, I basically had no American history in school). Perhaps this will help. I’d really like to get my hands on copy of “People’s History of the United States” as well.

Another goal I have: I use Delicious Monster’s Library software, which is one of those tools that’s hard to describe and doesn’t really exactly do anything; it’s just so pretty and so fun that I am wholesale addicted. I have entered most of my library into it now (~420 books right now, excluding three bookcases that are still upstairs and un-indexed). I created a special shelf (though I am totally scandalized that there aren’t “Smart Shelves” or the equivalent) for books I haven’t read in my library and want to. There are 54 books on this shelf. I’d like to get this down to 30 in the next year. Wonder if I can do it.