Okay, now that I’ve finished the book, I don’t know what to do. I’ll miss the Shepard king. I was actually so sad when I finished, I feel like a part of me is now missing :(

HELP REQUESTED!

My friend group started passing around books to annotate and gift — each person adds notes, doodles, or little thoughts for the next reader. It’s my turn now, and this copy is for my best friend!

I’ve never annotated a book before, and part of me still cringes at the thought of 'defacing' it, but the book they did for me ended up being one of my favorite gifts ever.

So, give me your best advice! How do you like to annotate? What tools or systems work for you? And if you were getting an annotated book, what kind of notes or touches would you want to see?

Hesitating to Highlight,

🖤 X

Every year I try to read one intimidating (or lengthy or dense or “difficult”) book to not only try to better improve my reading skills, but because there are also just a lot of books I’ve been wanting to read and have been a lil too scared to jump in.

I’ve been thinking about next year and what book I might choose, and I’ve been wanting to get into reading more Greek lit, especially the epics, for a long time. I own both The Iliad and The Odyssey, but not sure which one is best to start with. What would you guys recommend? Anything I should know before diving in? Any tips?

Also, I’m not the most…advanced or “intellectual” reader (hence the whole trying to read more challenging books thing) and a part of me is a bit intimidated and worried I’ll have a hard time understanding what’s going on. So any tips or thoughts on that would be much appreciated too! . . . Some background if it’s helpful: I read Edith Hamilton’s Mythology and a couple of excerpts from The Odyssey 10ish years ago for high school. I have a pretty good general understanding of the events that occur in The Odyssey (thanks to a “dumbed” down middle grade book version I read not too long ago and EPIC: The Musical [I know quite a few liberties were taken with the latter]). I know next to nothing about the Iliad.

This book is so good I literally cannot put it down! And everyone says the second one is even better?! I cannot wait