reading Homer

I have found a few podcasts I really enjoy, and right now, Close Reads is going through The Odyssey of Homer, using a new translation by Emily Wilson, which we happen to have at our library (I asked my boss to get it). I can't believe I'm reading this! But when you've got a few interesting and appealing personalities discussing a work, it helps to carry you along.

It isn't ponderous at all but quite easy to follow, and the people in the podcast know about that era, so any cultural gaps are easily filled in during the conversation. I don't always listen to Close Reads, but this time I am. The Circe Institute also has a Daily Poem podcast, and The Play's the Thing, which is all Shakespeare. They are doing Othello right now, but I've put that aside to read the Homer.

But that's not the only thing I'm surprised to be reading. The Literary Life podcast did a few short stories over the summer, all of which can easily be found online, and one of them was by James Joyce of all people. (Now, I have to say that I never thought I'd ever read James Joyce; since I didn't go to college, I never had to read any.) Then there's another podcast at the BBC with Melvyn Bragg, called In Our Time , on every subject imaginable; I pick and choose with those.

Podcast listening takes time - they are mostly an hour or more, at least the American ones. I just try to fit it in here and there.

"Even a fool learns something once it hits him."

-   Homer