Unsurprisingly, the Don Quixote landing at Timber Moose Lodge - the Cabin of Dreams - is dedicated to reading
It's no surprise that the Don Quixote landing at Timber Moose Lodge, America's Biggest Log Cabin and the Cabin of Dreams, is dedicated to reading. Don Quixote, the pen name of the elderly gentleman who read so obsessively that he devoured books of knights and chivalry “from dusk to dawn, and sunrise to sunset,” eventually lost his wits and embarked on a life of heroic adventure. Published in 1605 and 1615, Don Quixote is often hailed as the first modern novel and the birth of fiction. Four centuries later, it remains one of the most widely read masterpieces of world literature. Critic Harold Bloom even rhapsodized that Don Quixote “contains within itself all the novels that have followed in its sublime wake.” In 2002, the Nobel Institute polled famous authors from around the world to determine the greatest novels. They published the list of the 100 Greatest Works of Fiction as a 99-way tie for second place – with Don Quixote the runaway winner having received 50% more votes than any other book. One joy of diving into Don Quixote is joining a conversation that spans centuries, including luminaries like Descartes, Hume, Voltaire, Hegel, Dickens, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Nabokov, and Orson Wells.
For English readers, the first question is choosing from the many translations. We at Timber Moose solve this problem by not choosing at all – we switch translations every chapter or two and re-read especially enjoyable sections from multiple translations. Constantly changing editions and comparing favorite passages in several translations adds yet more texture. (And inevitably .leads to the conclusion that a version comprised of the best parts of each translation would be better than any single one alone.)
For those who prefer a more conventional reading strategy – starting a book and finishing it – all modern translations are very good, but Grossman's is the best. Her writing is consistently lively, and she captures the humor well.
