I love the meme that men are always thinking about Rome. For a guy who reads non fiction I barely think about Rome. For example it took me far too long to see the obvious inspiration in Arkady Martine’s A Memory Called Empire. I’ve tried to fix this obvious character flaw by reading Mary Beard’s tome SPQR. Now, after finishing it, I think about Rome a lot more.
SPQR is incredibly dense, in a good way, and required me to create a timeline of key people and events because the scale and detail is fast. I will go back and re-read it as I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface.
I already liked Mary Beard from interviews and her TV appearances. I’ll be adding more of her books to the To Read list.