Great American Read List discussion

This topic is for discussion of our February/March 2021 group read,
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra.

To all who voted: thank you!
To everyone: I hope you'll participate and read this selection for our book club.
For those who do: share your thoughts as you read, please!
Spoilers are allowed; add a considerate warning if your comment includes any so members have the option to skip.

A few notes on this book:
* It came in at #68 on the final Great American Read list.
* It has a 3.88 average Goodreads rating.
* It's really two novels, now generally combined into one, with the first part published in 1605 and the second in 1615.
* It is generally considered to be the first "modern novel", or a prototype for the modern novel.
* It was first translated into English in 1612.
* There are numerous modern translations available, but the 2003 translation by Edith Grossman seems to be quite well-respected, if you're trying to pick one to read. (And it has a "Great American Read" sticker on the cover!)

I purchased the Edith Grossman translation and I also downloaded a sample of the John Rutherford translation. To me Grossman seems easier to read, Rutherford seems to focus more on the humor, but the language doesn't seem to flow as well, if that makes sense. The forwards and introductions of both books were different and interesting, but I thought they were a bit long and drawn out.

I bought the Grossman translation too. Not sure when I'm going to have time to read it though. Eventually...

Interesting observation about translations;

This is text from the Edith Grossman translation: a maiden could, in days of yore, after eighty years of never once sleeping under a roof, go to her grave as pure as the day her mother bore her.

This is the same passage from the John Rutherford translation: there were maidens in those times gone by who, at the age of eighty and not having slept a single night under a roof, went to their graves with their maidenheads as intact as the mothers who’d borne them.

Do you think in the original version this was supposed to be a joke or maybe sarcastic, and the Grossman translation changed it enough to remove the humor?

Here's another example of different translations;

Grossman: Sancho Panza settled down between Rocinante and his donkey and slept, not like a scorned lover, but like a man who had been kicked and bruised.

Rutherford: Sancho Panza settled down between Rocinante and his donkey, and there he slept the sleep not so much of a star-crossed lover as of a hoof-hammered squire.

I think I'm beginning to like Rutherford's style better.

These are interesting. I haven't started this book yet, but I was planning on reading the Grossman version.
It sounds like Rutherford brings more humor to it, while Grossman is maybe more of a direct translation?

I finally settled on the Grossman version, it's pretty easy to read. This is going to take me a while to read, it's really a funny story,

I'm at 50% and this is such a strange book. I love reading it, it's quite entertaining, but I feel like it's going to take me forever to finish.