# What are you reading?

**URL:** https://quarterdeck.commanderbond.net/t/what-are-you-reading/1150
**Category:** Books
**Created:** [January 10, 2019, 7:54pm UTC](https://quarterdeck.commanderbond.net/t/what-are-you-reading/1150 "2019-01-10T19:54:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 518

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### Author: ![Dustin](https://quarterdeck.commanderbond.net/user_avatar/quarterdeck.commanderbond.net/dustin/32/7_2.png) [@Dustin](https://quarterdeck.commanderbond.net/u/Dustin)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2026, 7:05pm UTC](https://quarterdeck.commanderbond.net/t/what-are-you-reading/1150/518 "2026-07-18T19:05:00Z")

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> Makrinos, Beard and Higgins nudge the general reader towards the [Emily Wilson](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/dec/08/the-odyssey-translated-emily-wilson-review) translation. I bought the Norton Critical Edition of Wilson’s translation because of its detailed footnotes, maps, appendices and book-by-book summaries, helping to situate the struggling reader.

And since I have the Wilson translation of The Iliad on my shelf - not The Odyssey though - I decided to give it a go. This is _immensely_ readable, easily the most approachable translation I’ve encountered so far. Leagues ahead of my German translation from the late 18th century (spoiler: reading it in Greek is probably easier).

If you want Homer condensed and approachable you‘ll have to turn to Stephen Fry‘s books - but if you want the actual text translated into a version you can at once understand and appreciate for its raw melodic power this would probably be your best bet.

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