In my quest to read the entirety of my reading pile, I’ve taken to reading a chapter or two out of Bulfinch’s Mythology before I go to bed each night, for the last month.
I’ve had this book for over a year–I bought it after my Brit Lit teacher recommended it, as a lot of cannon work is derived from the classics, especially the further back you go. I started reading it when I got it, but the further into the semester I got, the less I read. And it’s hard to read a lot of mythology in one sitting.
Hense, the reading a chapter right before bed.
The best part about Bulfinch, though, is that he dumbs everything down. He put together the three books that make up this volume (Age of Fable, Age of Chivalry, and Legends of Charlemagne) as sort of a helpful guide for the casual reader who was reading to make sense of the British writers of the day. Each story is as concise as possible–Hercules’ story takes up at least seven full chapters in Robert Graves’ The Greek Myths, one of the textbooks for last semester’s myth class–but only five pages in Bulfinch.
This shortness means that I am looking forward to reading about the Trojan war (4 pages),and the Illiad (10 pages). Especially since all of this is just a general review, since I’ve read most of the myths before.
I’m looking forward to the Age of Chivalry, which is mostly King Arthur tales, as I’ve read very few of those stories. I’m sure Bulfinch will be giving me just a bare-bones overview, which will be filled in when I get to Le Morte D’Arthur, which is the next bedtime reading book when I finally finish Bulfinch.
Only 750 more pages to go.
– “The Secret’s in the Telling,” Dusk and Summer: Dashboard Confessional
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