Sam Strives For 55 - Week Nine

Here is week 9 of Sam's reading journey, the metrics and first week can be found here

SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard

1. Intrigue 
   1. Interested in the creation of Rome? This is the book for you. Beard is clever in the way she tells playful anecdotes and drops what some call fascinating historical facts, and what others call technical jargon. Although, I will say I much prefer the myth of Remus and Romulus being raised by wolves as compared to the, ‘lets go rape women in neighboring town so our claim on them is cemented and our city grows.’
   2. To be honest, I am not one who normally reads historical books. SPQR was my attempt to give it a go! I love history, but usually love to learn about it in podcast form or video format. SPQR is an absolutely fantastic book to try and get back into history books. 
2. Writing style
   1. Endlessly witty. I will never forget the discussion about how spiders and contraceptives were involved together. Beard has a knack for keeping things interesting through the whole book. 
   2. Juicy quote:
      1. “It is a dangerous myth that we are better historians than our predecessors. We are not.”
3. Flow of storytelling 
   1. With non-fiction it can be both easy and hard to keep a flow going: easy because chronological order seems, usually, to be the best option with history texts; hard because it’s difficult to know what to omit. Beard does a splendid job navigating the water here crafting what feels like a story about Rome, when it’s actually the real history of it. 
4. Re-readability 
   1. Maybe before reading a trip this could be interesting for some people, or if I was a history teacher. For me this was an absolute blast to read but not something I’ll be moving forward with. 
5. TESS
   1. Does not qualify - but I’ll add this is a special history text. 

Final Rating: ★★★

J. Sam Williams is an illustrious black-tailed hawk, longing to eat as many vegan mice as possible. In his human form, he is a High School English Teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lives with his wife, one dog and two cats. A somewhat retired breakdancing teacher, he is now a co-host on the Alohomora Podcast! He has been published on Lunch Ticket, immix: a journal for justice, Mugglenet, and a slew of small sports journalism publications. You can find him on twitter @Jabbernator.