European burglers. So much more civilised.

Love this story. Guy breaks into a house in Rome but ends up reading a good book on Greek mythology!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg4kpv3p4zo

Yeah, I read that. It’s the sort of thing I’d do, although not the b&e, spotting an interesting book, picking it up then getting engrossed in the story or subject.
I went searching around Bath’s bookshops on Thursday looking for a present for a mate, I had a vague idea for the subject, and eventually an assistant in Toppings remembered seeing something that might be what I was looking for. She found it and offered to get me a pot of tea, which they do in that shop. I started to have a look at the first couple of pages, and I’d finished the first chapter by the time I’d finished my pot of tea!

I’ve ordered my own copy now.

Brilliant. OP – we encountered  a similar, but less cultured event growing up; a friends house was burgled by the local scum bag. They put a load of stuff in a bag before finding the alcohol cupboard. got distracted by the vodka and was found a while later pissed and passed out on the sofa.

On the back of that story, has anyone here read the Iliad and/or Odyssey? And if so did you find them enjoyable? Or hard going? Any version that you’d recommend? I’ve heard the Emily Wilson translations are excellent but haven’t tried them yet.

They are up there with War and Peace on my list of things I probably should try and read. But haven’t.

I went searching around Bath’s bookshops on Thursday looking for a present for a mate, I had a vague idea for the subject, and eventually an assistant in Toppings remembered seeing something that might be what I was looking for. She found it and offered to get me a pot of tea, which they do in that shop.

Bugger – my bookworm daughter is heading for the Bath Uni open day in a couple of weeks and if there are bookshops like that my plans for riding and walking from the University of Lancaster will go up in smoke!

Many years ago, returning to our Sienna B&B after dinner, heard the local yoof coming the other way, obvs pissed, and boisterous. Unlike the yobbish Engerland that would have been the norm in the UK, the lads were singing arias from  Italian opera