I'd like to try and read a modern English & prose (i.e. highly non-poetic, non stilted, if necessary non-direct) translation of Dante's Inferno sometime. (Poetry is incompatible with my brain, unless it's funny. I can't be the only one? Yes, school was hell sometimes. (No pun intended.)) Does anyone have any recommendations?
I think it’s fine to not be into poetry, but at its core the Divine Comedy is a long poem, and I’m not sure what’s left after you remove any and all “poetic” elements. The Wikipedia page I’m sure could give you the basic characteristics of the circles of hell, if that’s all you really want to know.
By the way, the book is a chore in many ways, despite the many nuggets of gold you’ll find within it. It’s long, and the number of references is overwhelming. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that it will never be light reading, no matter how you cut it. Why not look at it as more of a personal project or challenge (poetry and all)?
You do not need to go to "ultra high" density, à la Manhattan or Hong Kong.
Once you get to densities of Paris, Stockholm, Amsterdam, Munich, Brussels—in the 50 people per hectare (20 per acre) range—there are diminishing returns:
* https://transportgeography.org/contents/chapter4/environment...
I would not call any of those "ultra high" (though perhaps others would?).