This book is wonderfully descriptive and its use of language at times a bit daunting for this Plebe. I had to open my copy of Dante’s Inferno to ensure I understood the inference Mr. Brown was making in this novel. His description of the locations had me wishing I had enough air miles to hop on a plane. I do not have the cash for trips but I do have a computer and the Internet to help me paint this picture of the book. I may only be scratching the surface with these readings, will hopefully inspire you to pick up a book.

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Here are some of my notes while creating this Video>

A big Black Book sat on the bookshelf unopened until my Cov19 reading project and it popped it into my hand. Why I bought it to have its words simmer away, being wasted I do not know. 

Inferno by Dan Brown. The book’s pages are crisp and white, with small black print, and I will need my glasses to read. 

I opened the book to chapter 43 and started to read. Word sequences that I have never read before slipped into my mind. I think! I bought this book about five years ago and it has sat on my bookshelf patiently waiting for me. 

My personal rule for this project was to read a paragraph from a book I had randomly pulled from my bookshelf and see if I understood the chapter. I would then, so the idea went, digitally record my impressions, and post them on social media. 

That! is going to take a while with this book because after I read the paragraph of Chapter 43 I knew I had to start at the beginning. (Page 184-Chapter 43) 

“Marta Alverez was seething as she stepped out of the cramped video room, having left Langdon and his rude little sister at gunpoint with the guards. She marched over to a window and peered down at the Piazza della Signoria, relieved to see a police car parked out front.” 

That was it! My day off from work is gone at 7:30 a.m. as I slip into another time and place through the power of words as I started this journey. 

Every book is different and although I lack a formal education in language I have said “I think I am street smart” this book had me stumbling out of the gate. The prologue had the word “dolent” used in the term “dolent city” I had to stop immediately and look up the word. Yes! I could have googled it but in the “this is a book moment” I did it the old-fashioned way and reached for a dictionary. This is another book that with my atrocious spelling has not been used often enough. So, naturally my copy of The Concise English Dictionary did not have Dolent in it. The closest I could come was doleful. 
Google had me pull out my copy of Dante Alighieri’s The Divine Comedy and read Canto III, “THROUGH me the way is to the city dolent; Through me the way is to eternal dole; Through me the way among the people lost.” and that one word took over one hour of my day. 

I was at chapter 2 Page 15 at 11:45 when I stopped my research for my lunch of some leftover yummy pork chops.  

3:30 pm it takes a lot of tme to read 100 pages when every one of them has something you research. Like looking for a sculpture my Michelangelo , a painting by Sandro Botticelli or a fresco in a church. 

Reading “The buildings unusual spindle spire rising of centre from square fortress cuts a distinctive profile against the skyline that became an inimitable symbol of Florence” opens up so many doors that if you really wanted to you could base a PHD on it. 

I want to go to the Café Rivoire for an espresso to finish this. I am currently on page 176 of chapter34 as I sign off.  

What do you think of my process?