What are you reading? Not necessarily coin or ancient related.

I hope you enjoy it @GerardV it's one of the best histories of the late Republic that I have read. I would also recommend "The Punic Wars" - Adrian Goldsworthy. He is a detailed historian but very readable.

I've got two books that I'm working through.

 

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I just finished two Mary Beard books:
SPQR and Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Town.
Currently, I'm reading Umberto Eco's book The Island of the Day Before.
The next book probably will be Memoirs of Hadrian, by Margerite Yourcenar.

 

Have this on Kindle.

 

I actually started the Rothbard book last year and found it very interesting but hard going. I put it down and have not yet got back to it. It is still in the pile on my bedside table.

 

I read this a few years ago - quite good if I remember correctly

 

Currently reading "Timekeepers - How the World Became Obsessed with Time" by Simon Garfield. Pretty good so far, even though the chapters appear to be just loosely connected. But I have not finished it yet. Read his books "On the Map - A Mind-Expanding Exploration of the Way the World Looks" and "To the Letter - A Journey Through a Vanishing World" before (well, the German translation in all three cases) and found them to be very interesting.

Christian

 

@TheRed thanks for the tip. I will check them out.

 

Reading Frank McLynn's Marcus Aurelius. Reviews were mixed (Mary Beard especially - a couple members are reading her now I see), and I'd agree that there are some awkward moments. But I am learning a lot and it is mostly enjoyable.

McLynn does reference numismatics from time to time. But I have my doubts sometimes....here is a bit I thought I'd run by you folks:

"...not only because he (M. Aurelius) mentions the deities of Greek and Roman mythology so often - Clotho, the Muses, Zeus, Asclepius...but because his coinage foregrounds the traditional deities like Minerva, Mars and Jupiter instead of emphasizing the glorious and legendary early figures of Roman history, as Antoninus Pius did on his coins..." (P. 228)

I just don't recall a big difference in gods, etc. on the coins of M. Aurelius and Antoninus Pius. My own collection (small, common) has both emperors using Annona, Fortuna, Roma, etc. - the typical run of 2nd C. gods and goddesses. The use of "legendary early figures of Roman history" seems to be mostly a Roman Republic coinage practice. Any opinions?

 

I have Marcus Aurelius' Meditations and I frequently read it just before bed. I'm not a stoic, but admire his approach to life and its challenges.

 

It's a very good book, as well as most of Eco's books.

 

Who could forget the Name of the Rose?

 

One of the best books that I've read ever!

 

I am not a fan of Umberto Eco's style of writing. The story is great, but I found it hard to read. I much prefer the movie with Sean Connery.

 

This is a rare happy case where the movie is as good as the book.

 

The Name of the Rose is my all time favorite book and one of the few I have read multiple times. His writing is complex and you do have to "read" the book. The first time I read it I didn't appreciate what a fine work it is but by the third reading it had become evident that I loved it. To date the hardest read for me has been the author Roberto Bolaño. I could barely get through his opus 2666 and it probably deserves another read - if you tackle him start with The Savage Detectives

But I've digressed, so back to Eco. I came up with a first American edition of The Name of The Rose, back in 2003/2004 or so and I had the brilliant idea of sending it to Eco at The University of Bologna where he was a professor of Semiotics. I double boxed the book with the inner box being already addressed back to myself and included a few international reply coupons so he would incur no postage charge upon return.

3 months - 6 months - a year passed and I've written off the book as being pilfered. One day, I received a box in the mail from Italy. "What the heck is this?", I asked myself. "My book!!"



Three years had passed since I originally posted the book to Eco and today it is one of my prized possessions. A year or two after this I read an article in The New York Times about how Eco had some 50,000 books in his apartment and that every few years he had to undertake a major organization of his collection since in the interim of these cleanings piles and piles of books would appear. I finally had figured out what had happened.

This short sub-titled vid is worth a watch:

 

That is a great story. I am glad you finally got your book back. It is also one of my favourite books. I have also read several of his works on semiotics. They are difficult but worth it if you have an interest.

 

WOW WOW WOW! Well done!! Respect!!!

 

Cool! I wonder, and this may be an old joke, whether you tried the same thing with the author of a certain hitchhiker's guide. As for Eco, well, some of his books are fairly easy to read, such as "How To Travel With A Salmon", a collection of short and mostly amusing essays from the 1980s and 90s. But books such as "The Search for the Perfect Language in the European Culture" were pretty tough for me ...

Christian

 

I agree, it's a tough read. I find myself having to devote my whole attention to the book. That said, the subject matter is fascinating.

 

Pierre Bergé, a great Patron of the european culture, sadly deceased a few hours ago