Closed Stacks: Read Better, Remember More

Closed Stacks

Most readers can decode words but still miss the meaning. Closed Stacks teaches you to read in a way that builds comprehension, not just completion. You learn why your notes don't help you remember, how to handle difficult prose without rereading the same paragraph five times, and what actually changes in your brain when you read fiction versus nonfiction. A few episodes in, you start seeing arguments you used to skim past and remembering books long after you close them. Follow the show and leave a five-star rating if it sharpens how you read.The internet trained you to skim, and now even good books feel harder to hold in your head. Closed Stacks starts with that problem and works backward: why you believe things the author never said, why audiobooks feel different from paper, whether Emily Wilson rewrote The Odyssey or just translated it clearly. Each episode takes one reading problem and shows you the mechanics underneath.

  1. 19h ago

    Did Emily Wilson Rewrite The Odyssey?

    In this video, I look at what scholars have said about Emily Wilson's translation of The Odyssey and evaluate some of the criticism both for and against her book.Uploaded 31-05-26#theodyssey #emilywilson #homer Gabrielson, M. (2018). Review of Homer, Emily Wilson, trans., The Odyssey. New England Classical Journal, 45(2).Hardwick, A. (2025). Iliad translations in the undergraduate classroom. Journal of Classics Teaching, 26(52), 151–157. MacDonald, C. (2021). Review of Homer’s daughters: Women’s responses to Homer in the twentieth century and beyond, edited by Fiona Cox and Elena Theodorakopoulos. Bryn Mawr Classical Review.Pache, C. (2018). Review of Homer. The Odyssey, translated by Emily Wilson. Bryn Mawr Classical Review.Roberts, D. H. (2020). Emily Wilson, trans., Homer: The Odyssey. The Spenser Review, 50(1).Stockdale, E. (2019, December 30). Emily Wilson’s The Odyssey reviewed by Elizabeth Stockdale. Australasian Women in Ancient World Studies. Whitaker, R. (2020). Homer’s Odyssey three ways: Recent translations by Verity, Wilson, and Green. Acta Classica, 63, 241–254. Wilson, E. (2019). Epilogue: Translating Homer as a woman. In F. Cox and E. Theodorakopoulos (Eds.), Homer’s daughters: Women’s responses to Homer in the twentieth century and beyond (pp. 279–298). Oxford University Press. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    Did Emily Wilson Rewrite The Odyssey?

About

Most readers can decode words but still miss the meaning. Closed Stacks teaches you to read in a way that builds comprehension, not just completion. You learn why your notes don't help you remember, how to handle difficult prose without rereading the same paragraph five times, and what actually changes in your brain when you read fiction versus nonfiction. A few episodes in, you start seeing arguments you used to skim past and remembering books long after you close them. Follow the show and leave a five-star rating if it sharpens how you read.The internet trained you to skim, and now even good books feel harder to hold in your head. Closed Stacks starts with that problem and works backward: why you believe things the author never said, why audiobooks feel different from paper, whether Emily Wilson rewrote The Odyssey or just translated it clearly. Each episode takes one reading problem and shows you the mechanics underneath.