My Experience Reading The Odyssey 

    The Odyssey was an action packed, adventure filled journey that always kept me interested and intrigued — for the most part. The book started in the town of Ithaca, home of Odysseus, but Odysseus was not home. Instead we started by getting familiar with Telemachus, the son of Odysseus. Telemachus is who we as readers journey with for most of the beginning of the book. We discover more about Telemachus as the beginning of the story progresses, and we learn his background and purpose. Telemachus decides he has had enough of not being able to be with his father Odysseus. With the guidance of Athena, Telemachus makes the journey to find Odysseus, and we are with him throughout the journey. The book kept me interested most of the time. There was always something unexpected that could happen, and usually something did happen. To me, The Odyssey seemed as if it was a two sided story for the majority of the middle of the book. By that I mean it switches between Odysseus trying to survive on his epic and dangerous journey and Telemachus venturing to find his father. Sometimes there was a lot of anticipation and anxiousness involved in the book because they can never quite seem to find each other. It was almost like a sign of relief when they did and when Odysseus returned home. Some aspects of the story got somewhat left in its tracks, and only picked up even once and a while. To me that is the suitors. They were introduced as evil and nasty men who are trying to get Penelope to fall in love with them, but towards the middle of the book they are quieted a little bit and do not get fully back into the story until towards the end when the whole finale goes down. It kind of bothered me a little that Odysseus stayed disguised as a beggar for so long, not revealing himself to his wife, son, or killing the suitors. It was a sigh of relief when he did though. Although I found that a little bit annoying, it is what made me want to keep reading to discover what happens. Overall I enjoyed reading The Odyssey, it was interesting, eventful, adventurous, and meaningful. A lot of the meaning from the book has to be dug out from  the reader though, it was our job to really find out what this is trying to say about our lives.