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Dan Lee's avatar

I found the Iliad and Odyssey in the attic of a rented apartment when I was 11. I couldn't put them down. It was as if I was there. Years later I picked them up and realized how tedious it would be to read them again! It was like the story came through from behind the words.

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John Mistretta's avatar

Good on your 11 year old self, Dan! That’s better than any reading I was doing at that age. Hope to see you join the upcoming discussions, whether from memory or you deciding to reread them.

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albert venezio's avatar

Sorry about your Grandfather. Like you and Melissa I'm wild for books, and read hundreds each year for many decades but I usually buy a lot more than I can read.

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John Mistretta's avatar

Thank you Albert. I’ve started to cool off on buying books, mainly for a lack of space on our bookshelves. It’s time to start taking advantage of the library system. Hope to see you in the discussion for these!

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Jim in Alaska's avatar

Yep, I've easily well over a hundred running feet of filled book shelves and, having just checked, 707 E-books on my computer. I've been at it rather long of course (Lets see, add yours and Melissa's ages together, for more years than than that. Grin.).

I do like Pope's translation of the Iliad in rhyming couplets as the original was poetry, not prose written and orated in dactylic hexameter.

Speaking of e-books, Alexander Pope's translation is available at Project Gutenberg for free download in a number of formats; https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6130

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John Mistretta's avatar

I read a few pages of Pope’s translation and thought it was great. I ultimately decided against going with his for the whole read since he uses the Roman names for the gods. I wanted to keep it uniform in case I want to bounce across different translations and still follow along without having to google who’s who the whole time.

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Jim in Alaska's avatar

Having written the above, I figured I should check Gutenberg's Iliad download.

When I tried to download it the volume wouldn't open, I don't know if it's a temporary glitch of a long term problem. It is highly unusual, the folks at G'berg are rather careful.

I did find an epub version, of Pope's translation of all twenty something books of the Iliad available as a free download from another site; https://www.globalgreyebooks.com/iliad-of-homer-ebook.html

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albert venezio's avatar

Good idea John. Sometimes I want to check something in them or even re-read them so best I don't borrow from the library but that's best for many.

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