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People can approach this work in all kinds of legitimate ways. Reading it as a piece of literature, to appreciate the language, or to study religion casually, or academically. But I didn't read it in any of those ways. I read this as if it was speaking directly to me in a existential and immediately relevant manner. As a demand on how to live; a guide on how to treat my mind and intensions.

Its focus on work and watchfulness spoke to me. So much of modern spirituality is about views, seeing the world non-dually or in some holistic way, or focusing on balance. Here was a radical/extreme call to work, be steadfast in your intention, and practice, practice! Help is available but you much do the work, you must have the dedication and ultimately you much change how you are in the world, not just think differently or have a experience but BE different internally and externally.

I read it a few times, but then I got a audiobook read by the brilliant Jacob Needleman of the text translated by Thomas Byron. Jacob Needleman also did great readings of the Bhagavad Gita and Tao Te Ching, all three of which I got on cassettes!! to listen to in my car (this was when I was 21). I would drive daily in my twenties to school, work and pretty much everywhere; so there was a lot of time spend in that car listening to these three texts(occasionally I would also listen to music on the radio, I wasn't completely psychotic :). I must have listed to the Bhagavad Gita and Tao Te Ching 50 plus times over that decade, but it was The Dhammapada that spoke to me the most (especially early on) and thus I easily listened to it over a hundred times. I do not have it all memorized but parts of it live in my memory clear as anything. I picked a small selection from some of those memorable parts to share and comment on as my "review." Not sure how else to even review a text like this in any meaningful way. All quotes are from the Thomas Byron translation.

From Chapter l. Choices:

"We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our
thoughts.

With our thoughts we make the world.
Speak or act with an impure mind
And trouble will follow you
As the wheel follows the ox that draws
the cart."

The opening is etched into my memory. I can literally hear every intonation of Jacob Needleman's voice! Also, this is the core bedrock of Buddhism in whatever form. The mind's centrality in suffering, and its centrality to the way that leads to the end of suffering.

"'Look how he abused me and hurt me,
How he threw me down and robbed
me.'
Live with such thoughts and you live in
hate.

'Look how he abused me and hurt me,
How he threw me down and robbed
me.'
Abandon such thoughts, and live in love.
In this world
Hate never yet dispelled hate.
Only love dispels hate."

This one was very literal at one point. I recall getting beat up and mugged by a large group of young people and feeling anger after the initial shock. Maybe a hour or two after, this part of the Dhammapada ran through my mind and I felt how easy hate and anger are and how far I was from overcoming that kind of immediate reaction. A wake up call. Also a realization of how radical was the demand of this text for love as the only non self-involved and non-binding response to the world(negative or positive).
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From Chapter 8. The Thousands:

"Better than a hundred years of mischief
Is one day spent in contemplation.

Better than a hundred years of ignorance
Is one day spent in reflection.

Better than a hundred years of idleness
Is one day spent in determination.

Better to live one day
Wondering
How all things arise and pass away.

Better to live one hour
Seeing
The one life beyond the way.

Better to live one moment
In the moment
Of the way beyond the way. "

This part is really poetic. The immense importance of even one moment of real turning towards the way, towards the truth, towards even the contemplation of wonder at what it is to be alive, this mystery of life arising and passing away...in any moment.
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From Chapter 12. Yourself

"No one purifies another.
Never neglect your work
For another's,
However great his need.

Your work is to discover your work
And then with all your heart
To give yourself to it. "

This section really focusing in on the work only you can do for yourself. The second stanza is just a beautiful call to give your whole self to the work without reservation or self regard.
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From Chapter 18. Impurity

"The way is not in the sky.
The way is in the heart.
See how you love
Whatever keeps you from your
journey"

Honestly this part kind of blew my mind, because of the use of the word love to describe our relationship to obstacles and hindrances. It just rang true, real loving desire for things and aspects of life that bind the mind in delusion. To surrender what you love(which is very hard) and through that surrender to discover deeper love..."the way is in the heart"
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From Chapter 21. Out Of The Forest

"There is pleasure
And there is bliss.

Forgo the first to possess the second.

If you are happy
At the expense of another man's
happiness,
You are forever bound.

You do not what you should.
You do what you should not.
You are reckless, and desire grows.

But the master is wakeful.
He watches his body.
In all his actions he discriminates,
And he becomes pure."

There's that dialogue from the Brothers Karamazov that if the worlds harmony and salvation depend on the suffering of innocent children than the harmony and salvation are worthless; are even evil. Here the text is clear. Happiness at the expense of ANYONE else is bondage. (the last time I read the Brothers Karamazov was in high school so I'm sure I'm not remembering it exactly right)
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Chapter 24. Desire

"Quieten your mind.
Reflect.
Watch.
Nothing binds you.
You are free.
You are strong.
You have come to the end.
Free from passion and desire,
You have stripped the thorns from the
stem.

This is your last body.
You are wise.
You are free from desire
And you understand words
And the stitching together of words.
And you want nothing...."

"I found my way.
What shall I call Teacher?
The gift of truth is beyond giving.
The taste beyond sweetness,
The joy beyond joy."

Buddhism, especially early Buddhism has a reputation for being harsh and not prone to describing realization/enlightenment in any positive terms; mostly just negating what it isn't: the literal blowing out of delusions, self....
But like most things if you look closely, and read a bit it's more diverse then that. Here we get a very straightforward, empowering, and even celebratory description of what it is to awaken. The last two lines in particular are great descriptors and hint towards the literary devices some future Buddhist schools would use to describe through pointing beyond the words.

*Just so it's clear, I'm not a practicing Buddhist, just someone influenced by Buddhism. I'm writing these reviews for my own self-reflection on my reading and to share my opinions/experiences reading books.