Book Review: The Odyssey, Robert Fagles Translation, Narrated by Sir Ian McKellen

This was the first audiobook that I’ve ever listened to, and if it wasn’t part of the NYT Summer Reading Challenge to listen to an audiobook, I never would have listened to it. While I listen to podcasts, I don’t listen to audiobooks because I find that my mind tends to wander while listening and thus I absorb much less of the text than I otherwise would have. Reading is exercise for my brain, a deeply enjoyable and immersive pastime and somehow listening doesn’t provide me with the same effects. The Odyssey translated by Robert Fagles So when I saw the “listen to an audiobook” part of the NYT Summer Reading Challenge I felt daunted. Then I remembered that I had been planning to reread The Odyssey and wondered if this might be an opportunity to experience a book that I’ve read three or four times in a new way. So I searched Kobo books and lo and behold – they had my favourite Odyssey translation read by Sir Ian McKellen, no less. I only wish that they’d also had him read The Iliad,…