Who recommends it
- The Best Books on Greek MythologyReading list
The Odyssey, by Homer and translated by Robert Fagles, is a timeless classic and a cornerstone of Western literature. Fagles, winner of the PEN/Ralph Manheim Medal for Translation and a 1996 Academy Award in Literature, presents a stunning modern-verse translation of this beloved epic.
- The Best Monster BooksReading list
The Odyssey is one of the most famous monster books ever written. The story centers on the Greek hero Odysseus and his ten-year journey home from the Trojan War. During his voyage, Odysseus must contend with a wide variety of monsters, including the Cyclops, Scylla, and Circe. These challenges test his courage and…
- Ernest MetzgerInterview
I don’t think there’s a single book capable of launching a young person in just the right way. But there are books we’re grateful we’ve read early so that when we read them again through life we keep the memory of that powerful, juvenile reading. So: The Odyssey by Homer. If you read it as a child in, say, 2005, then…
- Tamler SommersInterview
10-12 year-olds: Wonder by R.J. Palacio. It was my daughter’s favorite book for a long time. High school: The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino because it’s beautiful and can introduce them to novel ways of understanding meaning and purpose. College: A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole because it’s the…
- Iliza ShlesingerInterview
ONE? I guess The Odyssey by Homer. It’s not the fastest or the most fun of reads but it really serves as a blueprint for so many modern works of literature and filmmaking. Books that I find myself thinking about long after I’ve read them are The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (all white people should have to read…
- Chigozie ObiomaInterview
I’m not certain that I have left education. I’m being educated every day, every time I engage with anything. For I do not know very much of the world. But the book that I think of as so all-encompassing in scope that it may well encapsulate an entire civilization and its body and spiritual politics is The Odyssey by…
- Gary MehiganInterview
My daughter is an avid reader and has just finished The Illiad and The Odyssey by Homer – maybe hard going though.
- Luciano FloridiInterview
- Massimo PigliucciInterview
A number of things, I always read several books at a time. Let me check my Kindle. So, in random order: The Odyssey by Homer, which I haven’t read in many years. The edition I got has a very nice introductory essay about the history and literary impact of the poem. The Role Ethics of Epictetus by Brian Johnson. It’s…
- Adam MartinakisInterview
Oh, that is really hard to tell as every human is a different personality, but I would suggest The Odyssey by Homer.
- Peter RodulfoInterview
I am sure that there were many millenniums worth of tales told before The Odyssey by Homer, but this is one of the earliest collections that have come down to us. I give credence to the cliche that there are only so many tales to tell and that all tales are a variation on these. Certainly Homer has had a direct…
- Daniel CohenInterview
On Certainty by Ludwig Wittgenstein; Gödel, Escher Bach by Douglas Hofstadter; The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot; The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan; The Eden Express by Mark Vonnegut; The Human Stain by Philip Roth; Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers K by David James…
- Mark ElliottInterview
It depends a little on when childhood ends. As a very young child, it could have been one of Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven series; later perhaps, an anthology of Greek mythology and more particularly Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
Often recommended alongside
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Lolita
War and Peace
Pride and Prejudice
Crime and Punishment
Don Quixote
On the Road
The IliadMore books by Homer our guests recommend
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