
It took a short, white haired whippersnapper of a professor in his late sixties on the brink of heart attack to get me interested in the Odyssey. For his class, we went to the symphony and he had us watch an opera. He was like Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka when he had the cane and was singing while using the cane to hold the kids back on the steps as they stared in impatient angst at the gorgeous candy and chocolate all around them. He used to yell: "What is society!?" while pointing his finger at us. No one knew what to say; but, you should read this book. There's great literature and essays about it as you go.