The Reading Room

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12:47 AM

Q: Identify a book where the main character is released from prison in order to be sent to conduct espionage in Italy

this is a book I borrowed off my father about 15 years ago, not sure of the actual age of the book. I've tried Googling but I've not been able to turn up anything that fits my memories. The book starts with our protagonist being released from jail in (I think) America, he's sent to the city of B...

story-identification

13 hours later…

IkWeetHetOokNiet

1:46 PM

@Mithrandir24601 Yep, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be hoarding toilet paper." Jane Austen, but definitely applicable to Germany. (lithub.com/…

I had missed this previously: Sales of plague-themed literature on the rise in Italy. Is America next? (4 March).

Ariana Melamed: Coronavirus Quarantine Reading List: 15 Best Apocalyptic Books to Read Now. Because we all want to keep it light, right?

4 hours later…

Rand al'Thor

5:30 PM

@IkWeetHetOokNiet Why is it always Northern Italy where pandemics arrive in Europe? First the Black Death, now the coronavirus.

@Mith Finally an ambiguous ping! Haven't seen you two in the same place for a long time.

2 hours later…

IkWeetHetOokNiet

7:25 PM

@Randal'Thor I don't think most epidemics that reached Europe reached the continent through Italy, e.g. the 1826–1837 cholera pandemic (from Russia), the Spanish flu (from France? Spanish newspapers were free to report on it, unlike newspapers in Germany, the United Kingdom and France), avian influenza, (...)

(...) the 2009 swine flu pandemic, the 2012 SARS outbreak.

The Italians gave us pizza and the original Romeo and Juliet story, so don't be too harsh on them.

Rand al'Thor

8:06 PM

@IkWeetHetOokNiet I was feeling sorry for them more than being harsh. But yes.

Most of those you've listed (at least the recent ones) didn't have such a drastic impact though.

IkWeetHetOokNiet

And none of them forced Shakespeare to stay indoors and write great poems and plays.

Rand al'Thor

Of course coronavirus isn't on Black Death scale, but it's still affecting people's lives a lot. Living in Europe I barely noticed bird flu, swine flu, or SARS.

IkWeetHetOokNiet

Ben Cohen: The Infectious Pestilence Did Reign.

Mithical

8:53 PM

@Randal'Thor Maybe you're just not looking in the right places. ;)

3 hours later…

Bookworm

11:33 PM

Q: Finding the exact King Arthur Book

I read a book titled "King Arthur" a long time ago but can't recognize the book now that I search it on Google as there are a plethora of books by that name in the market. Unfortunately, I also do not remember anything vivid about the book, just that it was the classic story about the life of Kin...