I’ve only read The Handmaiden’s Tale which was very good, depressing but good. That said The Blind Assassin is my daughter’s favorite book so maybe I should give it a try.
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Next up Classics
Cyrano de Bergerac - Rostand
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Iron Flame by Rebecca Yaros.
I didn’t know she had a humorous side. I will reconsider.
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I’m the only person I know who read that book & didn’t like it.
She can be wickedly funny. Not much scope for that humour in The Handmaid’s Tale!
I really liked the Maddaddam trilogy. The comments here made me look back to see what I said when I read the trilogy and, sure enough, I mentioned the humor:
Overall, they’re not light books, though.
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Good observations.
Everything Atwood writes is serious at its heart but she uses humour to lighten the mood in many books.
I am a huge fan of her as a person as well as of her writing.
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In the past week I’ve read Euripedes’ Alcestis, Medea, and Hippolytus, and also finished The Epic of Gilgamesh. I should finish the Odyssey tonight and I’ll probably start the Aeneid soon.
Euripedes’ Alcestis had an amazing scene that felt like it could have been from a contemporary play (the argument between Admetus and his father, Pheres).
I also started Hyperion; I’m about 20% in.
I also got the bug to start (re)reading/watching Shakespeare. I’ve probably read/seen/acted in 1/3 of his plays before.
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Thoughts? I finished last week but don’t want to spoil anything 
I’m at the 30% mark so can’t comment yet.
The Blind Assassin was my first Margaret Atwood, and I loved it. I just finished The MadAddam trilogy last month, and that was simply crazy-good.
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Next genre up Suspense / Thriller
Long Road To Mercy - Baldacci
He is s new author for me, but two of his on my self
The Odyssey completed, also finished Lolth’s Warrior (the most recent Drizzt book (#39, not counting the Cleric Quintet, which is related (eventually)). I restarted the series in late 2019 so, um, yeah. I’ll probably re-visit my Dragonlance and Discworld rereads soon.
Started the Aeneid; it’s 12 books (each roughly 2x the length of one of The Odyssey’s 24 books, at 800-1000 lines), so I’m reading one a night for a decent 12 day read. Book 4 is the source of the plot of the Purcell opera Dido and Aeneas. No idea how I made it this late in life without reading it.
I’m at the finish line on On the Road (It’s a love song to Neal Cassady, but gawd Cassady sounds like a dick throughout, ha) and the Mabinogion (roughly 60 pages left), so plan on wrapping those up soon.
I pulled out my Complete Plato that I bought… 15 years ago, and am slowly working through that, with a dialogue every few days. After Plato I plan to work through Aristotle and Xenophon; dunno if I’ll read any more. I’ve always been sort of interested in Euclid, Archimedes, Theophrastus, etc., but not sure if/when I’ll ever get into them. There’s also a number of poets (Theocritus, Callimachus, Apollonius of Rhodes) that are on my ‘maybe one day’ list.
I haven’t read a Greek play in a week, so I want to get back into my 2 a week plan (that’d get me through the Greek/Latin plays in a year, before I switch gears and get into Shakespeare’s precursors/contemporaries in England (Ben Jonson, John Lyly, Robert Greene, Thomas Nashe, George Peele, Thomas Middleton, John Fletcher, etc. I think there are 100s of plays that have survived; I also should look into the French plays eventually).
Once I wrap up the Aeneid, I have a bunch of other Greek/Latin works to read (e.g. Metamorphoses, Daphnis and Chloe, Lucian (A True Story, and other works)).
I also have an annotated Bible (New Revised Standard Version) that I keep meaning to read through (I read the entire King James version when I was 13, but I was reading to have read it rather than to actually read it). I’m not religious, but the stories are sort of fundamental to a lot of Western literature, so it’s worth a read.
After the Bible, I want to finally read the Decameron, Canterbury Tales, Divine Comedy, Faerie Queene, and Don Quixote. The Mabinogion is getting me into the mood for Le Morte d’Arthur and related works. I also have Orlando Innamorato and Orlando Furioso re: Matter of France.
Outside of the West, I’ve got the Mahabharata and Ramayana on my near-term list.
And I’ve got 100s of contemporary fantasy books I’m reading/want to read. I’m currently reading Elantris (my first Sanderson) and Hyperion.
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yikes, didn’t mean to write that much, lol.
I think I have multiple lifetimes of literature I’d like to read…
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Trying to recall if anyone is not a dick in that book…
I read On the Road a million years ago and never quite understood why it is considered iconic. It was a decent read but hardly a masterpiece.
I remember some classmates at high school studying Ancient Greek were reading excerpts from some of the famous works. Are you tempted to brush up on Ancient Greek (if you haven’t already) to read some of them?
I find there are a lot of excerpts that are beautiful (I’m reading the Original Scroll, which doesn’t have any pseudonyms, etc.). Like, there was a section last night where they were watching jazz in Chicago and it was a pleasant bit.
But I’m VERY uninterested in the plot itself.
I’m slooooowly picking up Ancient Greek. I am very interested in reading some works in the original languages. re: Latin, I can -almost- read Caesar’s Gallic Wars but not quite there yet.
I can read the first few sections of this with some work: Lingua Graeca Per Se Illustrata
I’m sight reading at the speed of your average 8 year old. Sounding out words, need to look up a word every once in awhile, etc. I also intend to work through Athenaze but I keep picking it up and dropping it.
I recently posted this on another forum when reading The Odyssey:
I can read French, German, and Italian at like, a 6-8 year old level (like, I still can’t read The Little Prince in the original French yet; I get lost in tenses, object/subject, etc.). I need to focus on them, and I’m thinking of starting iTalki lessons to actually learn these languages instead of being a silly dabbler.
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