Beware of Greeks. ...

I finished "The Illiad" the other day. I hadn't read it since high school, and I think we read excerpts in Latin then. The book was better than I remember and, no, I did not see the Brad Pitt movie "Troy."

I'm a slow reader and had to go back to the library to renew the book. The person behind the counter thought it odd that I was reading this.

-- No one reads "The Illiad" anymore, he said.

-- That's too bad, I replied. It's a great read.

-- Why would anyone want to read this? It hasn't been checked out on 25 years.

-- They don't know what they're missing. Can I have the book back now?

I wasn't lying. It is a great read. It has action, discussion, history, more action, foreshadowing, even more action, love, hate, revenge, more action. Maybe too much action -- how many times can I read about a spear ripping out someone's intestines?

Boy, I never realized what a jerk Agamemnon was -- now I'm not so sad that his wife axed him to death upon his return. I have more sympathy for Hektor now that I know he was tricked into battle by the gods.

And Achilles? Well, I find I have greater understanding of him. He was really done wrong, though his ego was larger than he was. I suppose I look at what's going on in my life and I find a bit of Achilles in me (you know, back behind the ankle ...). Sometimes I just want to retreat to my tent by the sea and watch the chaos spread around me, knowing that if I was involved, things would be different. Talk about ego!

New book

I've already jumped into a new book, foresaking the usual week or so of wondering what I'll read. I immediately picked up "The Old Curiosity Shop." There's a story behind this.

I was at the Saugatuck library earlier this week and the librarian stopped to chat. In the conversation, she mentioned a book group upstairs just broke up and they were talking about "A Tale of Two Cities."

I was excited. I love that book and just re-read it last year. It has action, discussion, history, more action, foreshadowing, even more action, love, hate, revenge, even more action. Not spears through intestines, though. Which is good.

So, we talked about that and about how Dickens serialized his works. We talked about how challenging that was, and I immediately thought of "The Old Curiosity Shop" because it wasn't meant to be a novel at all, just a short story.

So, there you have my thought process on that.

Thought: Hang on, Nell!