I've been reading more fiction lately.

I finished Imperium, by Robert Harris, a novel about "Rome's greatest politician", that was just a hell of a good book. It's written from the point of view of Tiro, Cicero's slave (whom he later freed--and he went on to live almost 60 years as a small farmer). Maybe I'll whip up a good review of it someday, but I'll say this now, it's a great way to get some back-story on some of the events of ancient history you've heard mentioned here and there.

Then there was Cell, by Steven King. I don't think I've used a cell phone since I read that. But going two weeks without making a cell call isn't strange for me.

To cut off accusations of false bravado, I did studiously avoid cell phones while I was reading the book.

To some degree it reminded me of Edmund Contoski's The Trojan Project (the link's not working right now, I hope Ed notices and fixes it soon).

And, I mentioned reading a Matt Helm book a while back, and the stuff I'm reading to the eldest daughter... All this is a long, roundabout excuse for me to celebrate Groundhog Day by rereading The Fountainhead, by you know who. She'd be celebrating her 102nd birthday today, if it hadn't been for those nasty cigarettes.

Oop. Breaktime's up.