Books

Finally! I recently finished reading "Memoirs of Cleopatra" by Margaret George, a historical fiction about Cleopatra VII. It wasn't a bad book but it was very long (about 1130 pages of small text) and wound up taking me over a year to read! I go through phases where I'm not in the mood to read for a while so that didn't help. Usually those phases occur inbetween books but this novel was so long, it occurred during it.

Anyway, since finally finishing "Cleopatra" I have taken up David Starkey's "Henry, Virtuous Prince", a history of Henry VIII early life. I was a little tentative about reading a history book rather than a historical novel. I was worried it would be dry and boring or that it would be written in some snobby intellectual way that I could not keep up with. But it's neither. It gives great insight into who and what from Henry's childhood and early life helped shaped the man and king and David Starkey is known for making history interesting, not boring. Let's just say it's going much faster than Margaret George's lengthy historical fictions, lol.

Of course I'm writing all this while watching a documentary on Helen of Troy in the background too - how obsessed with history am I? lol

Now for some hopefully less boring updates: tonight Steve and I are off to see Derren Brown, a performer who uses psychological tricks like subliminal messages on his audience to do "magic" and "mind reading". But he doesn't claim to be psychic, he's quite clear that they are all tricks and often reveals how he did them. It's very interesting to see how suggestive we all are to such psychological trickery. I just hope I'm not picked to take part!

On Sunday, we're going to the Didsbury Inn (yes, again!) but this time with some friends of Steve's.

We have off work on Monday for a bank holiday (May Day) so we're going to the new Liverpool shopping center - Liverpool One. I need to look for a dress and bathing suit for Jamaica!