{"id":29988,"date":"2017-01-03T06:00:29","date_gmt":"2017-01-03T12:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs2.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/?p=29988"},"modified":"2017-01-01T19:35:36","modified_gmt":"2017-01-02T01:35:36","slug":"now-departing-for-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/now-departing-for-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"Now Departing for: Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Hello and Welcome to the first month of the 2017 Online Reading Challenge!<\/p>\n

This year we’re going to travel the world, “visiting” a new country or city each month, giving us a chance to experience a little of other cultures without the annoying airport security lines! Grab your passport (library card) and let’s take off!<\/p>\n

Our first stop is Rome, a city that wears it’s ancient history proudly. Once the center of the known world, it remains a favorite for travelers and adventurers alike.<\/p>\n

There is no shortage of books set in or about ancient Rome. Mystery lovers should take a look at the popular murder mysteries by Lindsey Davis or John Maddox Roberts. For fiction, try any of several titles by Colleen McCullough or Robert Harris.<\/p>\n

If you’re looking for a travel guide, go to 914.563 where you’ll find information on Rome and Italy. For Roman history (and there’s lots of it!) look in 937.<\/p>\n

There are lots of DVDs to try too – the HBO series Rome<\/strong> <\/em><\/a>(caution: mature themes!) is spectacular or look for Gladiator<\/strong> <\/em><\/a>or Ben Hur<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. I, Claudius<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, an older PBS series has minimal production values (in sharp contrast to modern films) but the acting and story lines are amazing and you’ll be hooked immediately.<\/p>\n

For more contemporary setting, try Stuart Woods Foreign Affairs<\/strong><\/em><\/a> or The Imperfectionists<\/strong> <\/em><\/a>by Tom Rachman. You might also check out the movie When in Rome<\/strong><\/em>, a romantic comedy. And there’s always Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code<\/strong><\/em><\/a>\u00a0(and yes, I know it’s mostly set in the Vatican but I’m still counting it). Remember, there are no Library Police! If you would prefer to read something set in Italy, or only a bit in Rome, go for it; it still counts!<\/p>\n

As for me, I’m going to start by watching Roman Holiday<\/strong><\/em><\/a> with Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck. I’ve never seen this movie and figure it’s high time I fixed that. I’m also going to see about reading a book set in Rome – I’ll let you know how that goes.<\/p>\n

Now, what about you? What are you going to read (or watch or listen to) this month?<\/p>\n

Ciao!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello and Welcome to the first month of the 2017 Online Reading Challenge! This year we’re going to travel the world, “visiting” a new country or city each month, giving us a chance to experience a little of other cultures without the annoying airport security lines! Grab your passport (library[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,3371],"tags":[3252,3254,3395,206],"class_list":["post-29988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-online-book-challenge","tag-books","tag-dvds","tag-online-reading-challenge","tag-rome"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-7NG","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29988"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29996,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29988\/revisions\/29996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}