On Books : Where All Roads Lead To Rome Apart From An Embarrassing Turn-Off To A Cathedral

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Been a while since I've read books from my Kindle. Well these are four I've read in a few days as it's seems reading has powered back into my interests. All of them are available free as they are well out of copyright. Most of them also have some connection with the Roman Empire despite the random way I pick books there.

I swear my Kindle has a mind of it's own.

So let's start with:

Hannibal Makers Of History by Jacob Abbott. Mr Abbott was a prolific American author and this biography of the Carthaginian general who almost conquered Rome was written in 1876.

It's a workmanlike tome. It won't excite you to pursue the subject further but it's not dull either. Of the books I'm going to chat about today this it has to be said was by far the best.

Roads From Rome is a collection of stories from Ancient Rome by Anne Allinson published in 1913. I liked this one the least of the four I'm chatting today. Boring and not livened by having characters from that time ("Oh look there's Ovid, and now Virgil is making a guest appearance!")

Truly the greatest pleasure I received from this book was finishing it.

Now when you discover that Amazon have many old books no longer in copyright for free your instant reaction is to download them first by the digital ton and then properly ask questions afterwards. So when I saw a book called Ely Cathedral it was just downloaded. Though I do remember thinking I can't remember Ely in Cardiff having a cathedral (the main church in Wales is in another area of Cardiff, Llandaff). But not being an expert on churches and not normally interested anyway I electronically put the book to one side for another day.

Well that day came. And I discovered that this anonymous 1857 guide was about Ely Cathedral in Ely Cambridgeshire.....whoops.

So we have a book about a subject I'm not interested in in a place I'm unlikely to visit unless the wheels of my life really radically change. You won't be surprised to know I found the book dull. Though to be fair that's more due to me than the guide. If you're interested in churches then it might be for you.

Now the question I know you're asking as I'm writing this on an early (5:09am!) Sunday morning is this. What would the Emperors of Rome have been had they been living in the present day?

Some would have been politicians, others military figures, others managing a branch of McDonald's with Caesarean authority. But Meditations by Marcus Aurelius shows that this Roman emperor would have been a self help guru for in a Romancised way that's essentially what the book is.

Now unless you're interested in Roman history, or intend to live your life in the Ancient Roman manner in the same way someone  would wonder "What would Captain Kirk do?" when faced with any life event what you get if you take off the Roman aspects is ponced up common sense. Just like most self-help books really.

The next book I'm reading is Behind the Line A Story of College Life and football by Ralph Barbour.

Until the next time.

On Reading In The Early Morning, When You Know You've Won The Argument Over Your Wife And The Old Man And The Sully Sea

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well I woke up at three thirty am in the morning. If this was tomorrow I'd be screaming blue murder at how late I was given I'm working the early morning shift for the next four days. Today however I just can't sleep once my eyes emerged from its slumber. Just have to get out of bed.

Now if I was still living in Bridgend I'd have turned the television on and watched some sport. That pleasure is however a thing of the past. In fact looking at the TV guide I'm set to record in the next week a couple of the recent Planet of the Apes films, a bit of Boxing and reruns of Castle and Columbo....and basically that's it. Nothing to watch now.

Outside dawn is slowly beginning to break. It's quiet. The world is asleep and you're having insomnia. The day appears to be bright.....unlike my mood

So I turn on the Kindle and finish off the collection of short stories The Safe Man by Michael Connelly and to be truthful nothing has changed from the position I chatted about on Saturday. This was a book best summarised by the phrase "Is that all there is"? I'd expected a lot more. No question the leader for the title of the most disappointing book of 2017.

I've decided not to buy anymore ebooks for a while and just go through the ones (in their hundreds and mainly free) already on my Kindle. Now that soon the library will be back on stream and I'll be reading two books on the go there's no need to purchase anymore for the moment.

Just starting then on an alphabetical basis the next book is Hannibal Makers of History by Jacob Abbott, which as far as I can tell was written in the nineteenth century. We'll see how I do.

I know it's hard to belive but from time to time me and the wife argue (yes shocking). But occasionally I'm reminded of the tell tale signs when I've won an argument. Yesterday the wife was looking at available houses in the Penarth area when she started speaking about a house she and our daughter had already visited when I was at work last week.

She encouraged me to go and look at the house online. Did just that. But as I went through this three bedroomed at the edge of our budget a large problem with the house was making itself clear...or rather the large field next to it.

For fields can include all manner of wildlife, including, as I said to her, members of the rodent family. My wife has a phobia of mice to the same extent that I have of dogs. Doesn't matter if we'd exchanged contracts and had moved in one sight of a mouse and she's packing off to her brother before you can say semi detached. So I go on. I'm not going look at a house that I know we're not going to buy.

And there was silence.

It was the silence of someone who couldn't think of anything to counter what I'd just said. I won't say it was silence was golden but it unspoke volumes about who was right.

For the first time today was able to walk to the sea around the village of Sully I mentioned yesterday. There was no beach where I was. Just rocks. Still it's an impressive view (though must admit my preference are the Valleys).

Remember not the South of France but South Wales

Must remind myself to take a picture when the weather is wet and windy and cliché Celtic. Perhaps then from those rocks Celtic gods will come to me and say that I must undertake my true purpose in making Wales a free and independent land again.

But for today after I took the picture went to do some shopping at Lidls...majestically of course.

Until the next time.