I fail at being well-read

When we walked out of the movie last night, Downwood asked for a comparison-contrast between Gaiman's screenplay and the original Beowulf story. To my great shame (and his great surprise), I told him that I was incapable of rendering such a treatise since I had never read the original.

A minor in Classics will only take you so far, folks. If I'd made up my mind a semester earlier, I could have pulled off the major and would be a much more interesting conversationalist.

Thanks to Borders being wonderful and sending me good coupons every Thursday for the upcoming weekend (yay coupons!), I insisted that we venture thither after dinner so that I could acquire a translated copy of the story.

I confessed to the guy at the checkout counter why I was choosing that book today. He offered me absolution for what I had done (no kidding, he used that exact phrase), said that I'd chosen one of the better translations, and that I was to read Grendel by John Gardener next.

Bibliophiles rock!