If you’re in a rush, I think the post title pretty much obviates everything I have to say here, but then again people in a rush aren’t really reading this blog to begin with. Anyway, as you may be aware, two decades ago in 2001 I started rewriting the entire Torah/Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) line-by-line in rhyming couplets. Interrupted by life, jobs, lack of motivation, and a couple other books, I finally released From God To Verse in 2010, in print form.

It was, and still is, my magnum opus: a complete line-by-line rhyming version of the entire Torah, including short rhymed chapter summaries in addition to the full text. To kick off the Jewish New Year, two decades after I started writing it, I am finally releasing From God To Verse in eBook format.

eBook-ified!

* I hired a copyeditor, and someone to format it all for ebook to make sure all the pages line up right and the Table of Contents is all hyperlinked to every single chapter. I even hired one more person, who I’ll tell you about in a future post in a few weeks. Frankly, I’m beginning to wonder if I should have spared some expense, since given the low price, I am going to have to sell some hundreds of copies just to break even on financial outlay, let alone receiving any recompense for my time and effort.

** And I mean actually $5. I’m sure that I’m losing out on algorithm points by pricing things at whole dollar amounts instead of $4.99, but it always seems like such a gimmick designed to fool people’s brains. I realize it’s a gimmick that works, but I’m trying to be honest and straightforward about things, and thus, $5. This attitude is one of the reasons I will probably never be a huge commercial success.

*** [William Tell Overture] Buck-a-book, buck-a-book, buck-a-book book book, Buck-a-book, buck-a-book, buck-a-book book book, Buck-a-book, buck-a-book, buck-a-book book book, Buck-a-book… a-buck-a-book book book [/William Tell Overture]

This book has been in progress for roughly a decade, and as of Fall 2010, is finally available. I hatched the idea during my senior year of college, and began working on it the fall after my graduation. Various interruptions, from full-time employment, to writing the other books below, to home-buying, conspired to keep me from finishing.

Finally, after a decade, I am done

My book, From God To Verse, is a line-by-line translation of the Five Books of Moses into rhyming couplets. Sure, it took me a while to finish and publish, but good things come to those who wait. I haven’t left anything out, not even a single name from the endless genealogies and begats. What I have done is made the language more accessible, added parenthetical explanations in some places, and put in short chapter summaries. Oh, and made the whole thing rhyme. That was the hard part.

It’s a little scary to realize that I’ve spent nearly a third of my life writing this book. I look back at where I was when I started it, both as a person and a writer, and am amazed how much I’ve done in the meantime. But while I have written three other books, this is no doubt my magnum opus (literally, “big penguin”). For anyone who wants to share the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy with others, or rediscover them yourself, I strongly encourage you to try my rhyming translation.