I haven't read anything like this since university and it was a nice change. Because it's an epic poem of the oral tradition there were parts that were very repetitive (characters repeating what had happened to them every time they meet someone new, etc) but I can't complain because the whole point of my reading this was so that I would finally know the story of The Odyssey and now I can definitely say I won't be forgetting it!

I really liked books 10, 11 & 12 because that's where Odysseus meets up lots of the characters I'm already familiar with from other books - in book 10 he finds Circe's island and meets her, he travels to the world of the dead in book 11 and is reunited with Achilles and Agamemnon (sad), and book 12 is the part with Scylla, the 6 headed sea monster.

Athena's the puppet master of this whole poem and now I'm curious to read more about her. I couldn't help rolling my eyes every time Telemachus opened his mouth because he was rather whiny and irritating but other than that reading The Odyssey was an enjoyable experience!