This freaking book...

...has been the bane of my reading existence for I don't even remember how long. I started reading it months ago, and let me tell you, it was a struggle. I'm very much opposed to not finishing books that I've started, and I generally only read one book at a time. I took special exception with this book though, and started not one, but two other books while mired in this one.

I'm not typically a slow reader (for reference: I read the 7th Harry Potter book in less than 12 hours, and half of The DaVinci Code in less than 8 hours), but this book? It is SLOW. The story itself isn't so bad, if you're into the whole epic-poem-used-to-legitimize-the-Roman-Empire's-existence thing (or just classical Antiquity and history in general), but in the end, it's a poem. It's a poem that was written in Latin and translated into English.

I read the Fitzgerald translation because that's what I had. I was cleaning out some old boxes of books from college, and I thought, hey, I only read half of this when it was assigned for class (remind me to tell you about my spotty, yet departmentally legendary, class attendance history), I should read it now!. According to Wikipedia, Fagles did a translation within the past 5 years, so maybe I'll check that out after I've aired out my mind with some less heavy reading.

There are two issues with The Aeneid that in my opinion, can make it very difficult to get through. The first being the names. The ridiculous, endless, interchangeable names. All of the major players in the story have multiple names, which can be confusing until you figure out who is who (or until you realize there is a short reference in the back clearing it up). And then there are passages that just list name after name after name, and maybe the reference guide doesn't tell you who those people are. Unless you're dedicated to looking up every name you don't know (and there are a LOT) or you're a classical scholar, then be prepared to be confused.

The second issue is that it's a poem. It's a long book, spanning multiple "books", and it's thousands of lines long. Reading a poem in and of itself isn't so difficult, but it took me a few pages to get back into the rhythm of reading the poem as the story, and not strictly as lines. In addition, going too long in between reading the book made me forget whatever the heck they were doing when I last left them. (Likely candidates: crying or fighting, gods wreaking havoc.)

I did enjoy the story itself, but it was a challenging read. Every night I'd go to bed, and there'd The Aeneid be, silently mocking me from my dresser. But I'm happy to say that I was able to power through the last couple of books this weekend, and finally finished last night! A very epic moment, indeed.