 | The Odyssey (Penguin Classics) by Homer
Buy new: $10.40 / Used from: $6.88 The ultimate and the original. Our hero encounters a host of amazing characters (gods, monsters, Greeks, nymphs) and interacts with them all. This translation--the Fagles--is far superior to the Lawrence (of Arabia) version. It's quite readable, yet faithful to the original.
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 | The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
Buy used from: $3.97 Still a wonderful book after all these years. I just reread it and loved it. No longer as vital as it once was, but still excellent. Huck and Jim come across a cast of odd characters on the river, in a very Odyssean manner.
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 | Don Quixote: Abridged Edition (Mentor) by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
Buy used from: $0.01 Don Quixote is a remarkable tale. Uproariously funny and insightful. Yet, at 1000 pages, it is much too long. It becomes tedious and repetitive. The abridged version much better brings to life this incredible journey filled with humorous encounters.
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 | Cold Mountain: A Novel by Charles Frazier
Buy used from: $2.15 Directly modeled after the Odyssey, Cold Mountain is a fabulous read. I feared that it was some sort of apology for the Confederacy, but far from it. Beautifully written and gripping. The main character deserts the Confederate Army and comes across a bizarre array of characters on his way home. Read it!
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 | The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 100th Anniversary Edition (Books of Wonder) by L. Frank Baum
Buy new: $17.99 / Used from: $9.94 A bit long winded, as a book and certainly as a series, but this book is still a hoot. A romp through a strange land filled with oddball characters. Indeed, most of the characters have political references from Baum's day...
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 | The Children's Homer: The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy by Padraic Colum
Buy new: $9.95 / Used from: $3.73 I had this as a young teenager and really enjoyed it. There are many children's introductions to the Homeric Odyssey.
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 | Candide (Dover Thrift Editions) by Voltaire
Buy new: $1.50 / Used from: $0.01 I haven't read Candide, but have learned that it is highly Odyssean in its structure. A novella of great fame.
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 | Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Buy new: $11.04 / Used from: $2.47 "Sentence first, then verdict!" Alice is another Odysseus, making her way through a "foreign" land "peopled" with bizarre characters. Don't buy an annotated version (very distracting), DO buy one with illustrations, preferably one of the new ones (not so dark!). Lots of marvelous characters.
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 | The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Buy new: $13.57 / Used from: $7.85 I liked this okay as a child and really disliked reading it to my 6 year old. It is a complex work, filled with adult puns and turns of phrase. Really does not work well as a young kid's book. Odyssean in the sense that Milo's journey home leads through a strange land and strange characters.
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 | Heart of Darkness and The Secret Sharer (Signet Classics) by Joseph Conrad
Buy new: $4.95 / Used from: $0.97 The Heart of Darkness is a wonderful novella. Our lead comes across some strange characters on his epic journey up the Congo. Still a fabulous read.
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 | Heart of Darkness (Dover Thrift Editions) by Joseph Conrad
Buy new: $1.50 / Used from: $0.01 Dirt cheap! How can you afford not to try this?
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 | The Aeneid (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition) by Virgil
Buy new: $10.40 / Used from: $7.50 Virgil's epic. Related to the Odyssey, but rewritten in many ways. I haven't read this yet.
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 | Ulysses (Penguin Modern Classics) by James Joyce
Buy new: $16.00 / Used from: $10.79 Often called one of the most challenging novels in the English language. I might give it a shot, but it's never once been recommended to me. My sense is that it is an "important" work, but not an enjoyable one.
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 | Apocalypse Now Redux
Buy used from: $3.40 My all-time favorite movie. A masterpiece from start to finish--and then I saw the REDUX version: it's even better! I don't mean to put films on this list, but this movie is a serious work of art, dare I say literary. The Redux version in particular is an truly Odyssean creature, in which a whole host of jungle characters offer a confused plethora of philosophies, opinions, and directions.
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 | The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Buy new: $8.97 / Used from: $2.99 Skimpy and light, this international bestseller is a feelgood little thing. It is a boy's sweet journey in pursuit of his dreams and the meaning of life. A bit too saccharine for me. Probably just the thing for a young person in-search-of, a person of pure religious faith, or a person who is an open-hearted believer.
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 | The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Buy new: $8.00 / Used from: $0.01 Not quite Odyssean, I'm afraid. More of an adventure novel or a bildungsroman. But still a marvelous tale.
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 | On the Road (Penguin Modern Classics) by Jack Kerouac
Buy new: $14.40 / Used from: $6.49 Not terribly Odyssean. I'm not sure this good book fits here. There are encounters with an assortment of Americans on the road, but it lacks the fantastical encounter of a truly Odyssean work.
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 | Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem
Buy new: $10.08 / Used from: $2.87 A wild journey in a Pynchon-esque light: a newer, punkier form of sci-fi. We visit several parts of a post-apocalypse America, each offering a grossly different ideological/material reality. Various characters vie to explain reality/realities. Great book, until the second half of the journey.
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 | American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman
Buy new: $10.19 / Used from: $4.49 Not read yet. A x-country journey across America, with gods and mythological creatures. Sounds Odyssean indeed. I didn't much care for Gaiman's Neverwhere, but might give this one a shot anyway.
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