The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

    I was shocked at how much I disliked The Odyssey after reading The Iliad. As a kid, I loved Odysseus and the children's version of The Odyssey with pictures. I never had that much exposure to The Iliad besides the movie, Troy. But reading both of them now, I liked The Iliad way more. I think that the most interesting parts of The Odyssey, the tricking of the cyclops, the passing between Scylla and Charybdis, are actually just way shorter as parts of the book than I realized. A huge amount of the book takes place back in Ithaca before and after Odysseus' return. 

    The best part of the book was really Emily Wilson's introduction, which artfully explains the history of the composition of The Odyssey, the Greek Epic Cycle, the importance of these works to the Greeks themselves and the Western canon, and how she translated it. Her introduction to The Iliad was equally good. I came away liking Odysseus less than I did when I enjoyed the children's book version of The Odyssey. He's not quite as heroic in the modern sense. End of the day, it's still a good story, and an interesting view into the world of the Ancient Greeks.