Coming Soon
I finally finished Thomas Pynchon's Against the Day this past weekend. I'm trying to digest it, still. But hopefully in the next couple of weeks I'll post a review of it. Also, this past weekend, I read Heidi Julavits's latest book, The Uses of Enchantment. I'll try to do a review of it soon, as it is well worth reading.
Currently reading a new biography of Augustus called, creatively, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor. It's by Anthony Everitt. Until I started reading this book, I didn't even know I cared about Rome or it's first emperor. Turns out I do. And it's made me want to read Virgil's The Aeneid. If anyone wants to read that with me, we could do a little book club deal, maybe. Discuss it and whatnot. Just let me know.
Currently reading a new biography of Augustus called, creatively, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor. It's by Anthony Everitt. Until I started reading this book, I didn't even know I cared about Rome or it's first emperor. Turns out I do. And it's made me want to read Virgil's The Aeneid. If anyone wants to read that with me, we could do a little book club deal, maybe. Discuss it and whatnot. Just let me know.
posted by Michael Lasley | 10:37 AM
3 Comments:
Julavits must've been a breezy read. Looking forward to the Pynchon review.
I might -- might -- tag along on the Virgil read. (I've started to get that new Fagles translation a few times.) But I've got 4 books under way already, and I'm already taking a side trip from them to read, coincidentally enough, Marcus Aurelius's Meditations.
What is it about Rome and its first emperor that you care about?
It is simply amazing to me that he became an emperor. He wasn't an especially good soldier -- he often got "sick" the night before a battle and couldn't participate. He'd anger the entire nation -- take away the lands of everyone who had land (kill them, even, to make it easier) in order to give the land to retiring soldiers. And then within a few years, everyone would have forgotten about it and LOVED him. This goes on a few times, actually. Goes from being very hated to very loved.
Despite his occasional lack of zeal on the battle-field, he seemed to be corageous in some areas of his life -- loyal to friends, tried to be honest.
He seems almost bipolar. So I guess I shouldn't have said I "care" about him as much as just surprisingly caught up in the soap opera of a life he had.
Oh, and the Julavits book is a pretty quick read. Not earth-shattering, but I enjoyed it.
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