I officially announce today that I am a senior citizen. More accurately, my mind is a senior citizen.
I knew it was going to come to this sooner or later. You may recall that in early September, I announced in book 'em, danno my receipt of several books. I had been holding off on purchasing and reading one of them (Thomas Cahill's Mysteries of the Middle Ages: And the Beginning of the Modern World) because of some very mediocre reviews.
And I was torn by that decision. I have enjoyed reading the other books in his Hinges of History series: How the Irish Saved Civilization, The Gifts of the Jews, Desire of the Everlasting Hills, and Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea. More than enjoyed -- I have learned much -- even when I disagreed with his conclusions and his historiography.
So, late in August, I relented and ordered the latest Cahill from Amazon. When it arrived, I was a bit disappointed. I had not noticed that I ordered a paperback, rather than my usual hardbound, version. I set it aside on my reading table, and there it set until Saturday morning.
Saturday was to be devoted solely to yard work to get the house in shape for the market. But I needed breakfast. And, eating required the hot tub. The hot tub required reading material. Out came the Cahill.
The introduction caught my attention. Even the digression to Alexandria did not distract me. But an odd thing happened around page 32. I found myself finishing sentences. By the next page, I knew what the next paragraph was going to tell me. Something odd was afoot.
Three options came to mind: 1) I had suddenly become clairvoyant; 2) My IQ had increased by 100 points, and I now knew things I had never read; or 3) I had read the book before, and had simply forgotten.
Hoping that option 1 or 2 could be true, I looked in my library -- and there it was. The latest Cahill book -- hardbound. But you have probably already figured that out from the photograph.
My opening line was not really accurate. I have been doing things like this since college. In fact, my memory may be getting better. I remember reading a Blackford Oakes novel three times while I was in the Air Force, never realizing I had read it before. (The only way I knew was because I was keeping a journal at the time. I still have a volume from 1974-1975. That might be an interesting revelation for a blog post one of these days.)
Cahill goes back on the shelf -- along with the realization that this is simply another reason why I do not want to abandon my library.
But I can get you a good deal on a slightly used copy of Mysteries of the Middle Ages.
I knew it was going to come to this sooner or later. You may recall that in early September, I announced in book 'em, danno my receipt of several books. I had been holding off on purchasing and reading one of them (Thomas Cahill's Mysteries of the Middle Ages: And the Beginning of the Modern World) because of some very mediocre reviews.
And I was torn by that decision. I have enjoyed reading the other books in his Hinges of History series: How the Irish Saved Civilization, The Gifts of the Jews, Desire of the Everlasting Hills, and Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea. More than enjoyed -- I have learned much -- even when I disagreed with his conclusions and his historiography.
So, late in August, I relented and ordered the latest Cahill from Amazon. When it arrived, I was a bit disappointed. I had not noticed that I ordered a paperback, rather than my usual hardbound, version. I set it aside on my reading table, and there it set until Saturday morning.
Saturday was to be devoted solely to yard work to get the house in shape for the market. But I needed breakfast. And, eating required the hot tub. The hot tub required reading material. Out came the Cahill.
The introduction caught my attention. Even the digression to Alexandria did not distract me. But an odd thing happened around page 32. I found myself finishing sentences. By the next page, I knew what the next paragraph was going to tell me. Something odd was afoot.
Three options came to mind: 1) I had suddenly become clairvoyant; 2) My IQ had increased by 100 points, and I now knew things I had never read; or 3) I had read the book before, and had simply forgotten.
Hoping that option 1 or 2 could be true, I looked in my library -- and there it was. The latest Cahill book -- hardbound. But you have probably already figured that out from the photograph.
My opening line was not really accurate. I have been doing things like this since college. In fact, my memory may be getting better. I remember reading a Blackford Oakes novel three times while I was in the Air Force, never realizing I had read it before. (The only way I knew was because I was keeping a journal at the time. I still have a volume from 1974-1975. That might be an interesting revelation for a blog post one of these days.)
Cahill goes back on the shelf -- along with the realization that this is simply another reason why I do not want to abandon my library.
But I can get you a good deal on a slightly used copy of Mysteries of the Middle Ages.
