The cooler weather makes me want to turn off my brain and dive into a book.
I was at Linda's store the other day, and I noticed a big biography: CAESAR: Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthy, and I thought, "That's the ticket. Go live in Ancient Rome for a few days."
It's weird how I carefully assemble a pile of books I read by authors I like, and then just randomly grab a book that comes into the store to read instead.
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I honestly don't understand people who don't read. For one thing, they're missing the fun.
For another, there is so much knowledge to be gained. I'm not just talking about non-fiction, either. Fiction gives you access to other people's lives, too.
In the Caesar book, the first third is devoted to his early, political life. The author makes a point that Caesar would often take on causes that he would end up losing. But he became identified with those causes, which helped him win elections. (One thing he was careful not to do, was lose an election -- but he would constantly support issues that would end up losing in the end.)
In other words, his identification with certain causes was what counted, not whether the legislation ever was adopted. They were almost never adopted because the Roman Senate wouldn't allow any significant legislation to be passed, because of envy and fear and greed and sloth. So Caesar would fight the good fight, win or lose, become identified with those good causes, win or lose, and win elections.
Not reaching for anything profound here, just remembering what I read over the last couple of days and what I gleaned from the surface.
Meanwhile, I think Caesar may be headed for a bad end....
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I'm at exactly 32 books read at the 32 week mark; so I'm keeping pace with my one a week goal. The book before Caesar was Stephen King's Under the Dome, so that ought to count for, like, 3 books.
I was at Linda's store the other day, and I noticed a big biography: CAESAR: Life of a Colossus by Adrian Goldsworthy, and I thought, "That's the ticket. Go live in Ancient Rome for a few days."
It's weird how I carefully assemble a pile of books I read by authors I like, and then just randomly grab a book that comes into the store to read instead.
**********
I honestly don't understand people who don't read. For one thing, they're missing the fun.
For another, there is so much knowledge to be gained. I'm not just talking about non-fiction, either. Fiction gives you access to other people's lives, too.
In the Caesar book, the first third is devoted to his early, political life. The author makes a point that Caesar would often take on causes that he would end up losing. But he became identified with those causes, which helped him win elections. (One thing he was careful not to do, was lose an election -- but he would constantly support issues that would end up losing in the end.)
In other words, his identification with certain causes was what counted, not whether the legislation ever was adopted. They were almost never adopted because the Roman Senate wouldn't allow any significant legislation to be passed, because of envy and fear and greed and sloth. So Caesar would fight the good fight, win or lose, become identified with those good causes, win or lose, and win elections.
Not reaching for anything profound here, just remembering what I read over the last couple of days and what I gleaned from the surface.
Meanwhile, I think Caesar may be headed for a bad end....
**********
I'm at exactly 32 books read at the 32 week mark; so I'm keeping pace with my one a week goal. The book before Caesar was Stephen King's Under the Dome, so that ought to count for, like, 3 books.