I sunbathe for twenty minutes every morning.
I read this book because I saw a clip for one of the fake movies in Tropic Thunder, the one with Robert Downey, Jr. as a sinful monk. A YouTube comment mentioned the movie that parody was based off, and as per my new habit of reading books that interesting movies are adapted from, I came in the end to the text. And now I study Latin every morning in addition to my French Duolingo lessons, partly because of this book and partly because of my weekly elderly charge, who told me that he had studied the language in his school days.
It surprised me how quickly (forty-five days) I finished the read given that I only spent twenty minutes a day with it. The story starts very slowly, and in an academic way that belies the actual tone and pace of the later action. I almost gave up before I got to the second chapter, and I’m glad I stuck with it. This is a highly intelligent murder mystery with a heavy emphasis on the chosen era and location, and Eco does a masterful job of bringing it to a satisfying conclusion.
I’ll have to read it again once I’ve gained more Latin proficiency.
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