The turn-out this year was perhaps as many as 60, though by now the reporters thought it old hat and ignored us. Histrionics occasionally got out of hand, and I was appalled that a few of the students took such delight in the gorier aspects of the Homeric text. To be sure, Iliad 21 came in the middle of the night when we were all getting a bit punchy, but I wasn't quite prepared for the raucous audience participation even then. But on the whole the reading was quite good. It makes quite a bit of difference who does the reading, as you might expect.
Some folks read in a monotone, stumbling over words and particularly proper names.
Some demonstrated a delightful side of their personality which had never before emerged. A few theater majors showed up and gave expression to their wonderful voices. One woman, a Russian by birth, had a different ear for English than the rest of us, and insisted on reading her book in Chapman's version. This year we hid the Chapman. The local Catholic priest joined in the Aeneid reading, with a deep, sonorous voice and a genuine feel for the material, and we were sorry that he couldn't stay longer and read another book.