I just finished reading Fagles' Iliad, and after reading the first 6 books in Lattimore's translation (the one the school provided), I couldn't agree more. It is worlds apart. I just started up The Odyssey from Fagles as well, so far so good.

hahaha. I confess, I didn't write the book. But I did love it. I definitely enjoyed the First Law series, but I feel like maybe Rothfuss' series has more upside? FL was fun, dark, and very fresh..but I never got that "wow, that was satisfying!" feeling from it. Of course, Rothfuss could really F up this series in the next two books and it all becomes moot(especially if he falls too in love with the protagonist). I see the potential here for something amazing, though, where I thought the First Law was "merely" very good.

I'd tend to agree with you, as you have mentioned some of my favorite books. I saved most of the books from my Classics course. My top 5 is Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. The Aeneid is another one of my favorites.

How do you determine which translations to read?

I see what you mean, although I was really impressed with the way Abercrombie wrapped everything up at the end of the series. Very bleak and brutal, which I thought was great. I would have agreed with the "very good" label until the ending. I'm worried the Rothfuss book is going to get to be a stereotypical "super-smart/special kid grows up to be a tortured bada$$ after making many mistakes" type of thing - we'll see, it definitely started well though. I just wish some of these damn authors (Rothfuss, and I'm looking at you, George Martin!) would finish their next books within 4 years or however long it's been. The wait is getting interminable. That's one reason I appreciated Abercrombie - he finished up quick! Steven Erikson is also on a one book a year pace, it is much appreciated.

I use the Amazon preview or publisher's excerpts to find something that speaks to me. I'm not that concerned about one translation being more accurate than another. For instance, the first line of the Iliad is:

μῆνιν ἄειδε θεὰ Πηληϊάδεω Ἀχιλῆος

which is, literally

wrath sing goddess son of Peleus Achilles

so you can translate this

sing, goddess, of the rage of Achilles, the son of Peleus
or
goddess, sing of the rage of Achilles, the son of Peleus

Pope spreads it out over two lines like this:
Achilles’ wrath, to Greece the direful spring
Of woes unnumber’d, heavenly goddess, sing!

Which is just fine by me.

Fitzgerald has it:
Anger be now your song, immortal one,
Akhilleus' anger, doomed and ruinous

Which sucks all manner of ass and I have no idea how this translation got to be popular in the first place.

Fagels in his brilliant translation has it

Rage - Goddess sing the rage of Peleus' son Achilles

Now this is epic poetry. It sings out and has acid bite in repetition of the word rage. So this is the kind of stuff I look for.

Thanks for the examples, Amp. Most of the translations that I've read I've gotten from my old university's recommendations from the Classics department, so I thought I would ask in case.

I thought this thread could do with a bump. Last time around I found a lot of great recommendations here and I can always do with some more.

The Corrections was simply fantastic, I highly recommend it to everyone. Franzen just released his new novel Freedom which has been getting good reviews everywhere and I'm starting it as soon as I finish The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. It won the Man Booker Prize in 2008 which I gather is kind of a big deal and I'm enjoying it so far. I also have Empire Falls and 2666 waiting for me.

Shantaram, The Name of the Wind and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao are all very good. Of the three I enjoyed The Name of the Wind the most and I have high hopes for the second part of the trilogy. I think I read on Rothfuss's blog that he had turned in a version of the second book to his editor and he/she is looking over it now so maybe the book will come out some time next year. Rothfuss does seem to be a bit of a bastard for a rewrite though so who knows how long he will spend working on it before it's actually out. At least he is better than GRRM who seems no closer to finishing A Dance with Dragons then he was a year ago.

The First Law trilogy was good though not at the same level as ASOAIF or Name of the Wind. If you're a fan of fantasy you could check it out but I wouldn't blame you if you didn't.

The release date for DFW's posthumous novel The Pale King is currently April 2011. His editor is working on sorting through 1000+ pages of writing and trying to edit it down into an actual novel. I just hope it does DFW's writing justice and is as good as I hope it will be.

Of the books mentioned in this thread I think the Corrections and the Road are destined to be classics, read in 50 years time. I love Stephenson and Martin as well but am less sure they will break out of their genres to be widely read.

Other books that I think have some chance of being widely read by futire generations:

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
Enduring Love by Ian McEwan
The Secret River by Kate Grenville

A quarter way through Infinite Jest at the moment. I like it but it's hard going in places. Very interesting. Strangely, although it seems to be very popular in the States it's virtually unknown in the UK.

I hated Shantaram with a passion and had to stop reading after a few hundred pages. Possibly the worst written and cliched book I've ever come across. Its popularity mystifies me.

Seems like 9 out of 10 people who read Shantaram love it and 1 out of 10 hates it. I loved it.

cold mountain
fire in the sky
diamond age
the player of games
thars more but i forget
just authormine in the related authors via amazon

dan simmons stuff aight 2

+ 1 for

The Road
Kavalier and Clay
David Eggers' A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, What is the What
Middlesex
Harry Potter

would add Atwood's Oryx and Crake and Eggers' Zeitoun off the top of my head.

If I had to guess which will be talked about most 50 years from now, I think I'd have to guess The Road.

OT: Most overrated book of the decade imo: Life of Pi.

Are we talking Iain Banks here? Man, I'm not seeing that one at all. I've read three of the Culture novels (including The Player of Games) and while they're decently entertaining sci-fi reads I'm not sure I'd call any of them "good books." Player of Games was probably the weakest of the three, too (other ones I've read are Use of Weapons and Matter), even though I've been a sucker for stories about gamesmen since the Piers Anthony days.

I haven't read widely enough to have a meaningful opinion of what is best in the last 10 years. I will say that I've read most of the books on citanul's list early in the thread and thought it was a very good list.

Consider Phlebas and Excession are his two best. I really enjoyed Player of Games, but I think the other two you've read are amongst the weakest.

As usual, whenever someone says "you either love it or hate it" I think it's kind of OK. The guy can't write, he's pretty unlikeable and he's way less smart than he thinks he is (that scientific foundation for morality is pathetic), but the story's fun.

I just read Carrion Comfort, that was pretty good. Drood was interesting too, and I don't think much of horror books in general. I much preferred the Hyperion stuff though.

Fury by Salman Rushdie.

This book is amazing, despite getting so little attention from the media.

You missed out the paper thin characters and the juvenile hippy philosophy.

Damn, I really need to get over this book. It's weird how much it bothers me that so many people love it.

Or are indifferent to it

I found it pretty informative about India in the early 80s. Perhaps I just don't hate this book because it reminds me of Midnight's Children. The fact that it makes me think they're set in similar places has to mean his writing isn't completely terrible.

You agnostics are the worst

Midnight's Children is one of my favourite books of all time. Sorry but your last sentence makes absolutely no sense to me at all. Enid Blyton sets seome of her books in the west of England as does Thomas Hardy. Does this mean that Blyton's writing can't be terrible?

Perhaps I think that as I know next to nothing about India, but you can identify that both books are about the same place - I think they have a similar flavour about them. They describe attitudes of the various sections of society in fairly similar ways as well.

just read this based off of the recommendation and was really impressed.

It's going to sound very feminine in the description, but its a stellar book.

Jhumpa Lahiri's Interpreter of Maladies (1999, close enough)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpreter_of_Maladies

nice call, i just posted this on a grunch... as for "the road", I put it like 5th or 6th on my mccarthy all time list

I just reread The Road and it was actually better than I remembered. Not as dazzlingly brilliant as Blood Meridian, or as epic as The Border Trilogy, but in its understated way nearly as good as those.