Friday Mood Recs: 30 texts to read after you see THE ODYSSEY
Okay, I haven’t see Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey yet. The only 70mm film IMAX project in Denver literary broke this week, causing mass hysteria at the theater where they tried to replace people’s tickets with those for the digital version. Luckily, the projector seems to be up and running again and my husband and I have tickets to see it at 11:40am on Tuesday, in idyllic second row seats.
So it is possible, even probable, that I will think of more books for this reading list after I actually see the film. But I’ve been thinking a lot about this foundational epic this week and (despite the fact that I hated teaching The Odyssey) it has made my English teacher heart happy that everywhere I’ve gone people want to talk about this ancient story!
Although I’ve included a lot of more recent works as well, much of my list is pulled from what I read as part of an incredible class I took in college called Greek Poetry and Philosophy in Greece. We spent a month traveling around Greece reading ancient and modern texts while drinking retsina and eating perfectly ripe tomatoes. It was one of the best experiences of my life and certainly part of the reason these texts are so memorable to me. I wish you all could fly to Greece with a bunch of friends to drink and eat and read together, but barring that, I do think these stories and poems are worth your time in any context. As always, I’d love to hear what you would add!
