challenging informative reflective slow-paced

Ik had een autobiografie verwacht (zoals het boek omschreven wordt) maar het ging meer over alle receptie gebaseerd op en in vergelijking met de Ilias en Odyssee. Ook interessant, maar was te zeer van slag dit ineens te kunnen lezen. Daarbij spraken de behandelde werken me niet zo aan omdat ik er nog niet veel van had gelezen. Auteur heeft verder wel goed onderzoek gedaan. Korte, duidelijke hoofdstukken met een hoge informatiedichtheid.

This was one of those books that I read because of the author rather than the topic. [Book:Homer’s the Iliad and the Odyssey: A Biography|1579091] by [Author:Alberto Manguel] (here and here), is the third book that I have read by Manguel. Previously, reading [Book:A Reading Diary: A Passionate Reader’s Reflections on a Year of Books|53079] and [Book:A History of Reading|53085], both I really enjoyed.

The last time I read the Odyssey was around 1990 while I was taking an Ancient History course at the University of Arizona. My now forgotten Professor was the entertainment rather than the books that we supposedly read and learned. However, since reading Manguel’s book, I am somewhat interested in pick up the Robert Fagles translations.

Manguel covers everything you might expect in a biography of a book – it’s creation, context and impact. Homer (the person or collective) wrote these poems about 2,800 years ago about events (the Trojan War and [Book:Ulysses] about the long journey home to Ithaca) that supposedly took place four hundred years before his time. Since the writing, there have been many other works that have included fragments of these stories, or entire passages – each paying tribute to Homer and his living stories.

I got bored. I would’ve like it better if he went straight to the point.

This is interesting enough and I appreciate the work it took and how it would be useful for certain people, but I have not read or avidly studied Homer’s work so it’s not something I would pick up again
informative reflective medium-paced
challenging informative slow-paced