My Summer Reading

Book Recommendation

 

     The question most frequently asked by my students is this: "Mr. Hollwedel, we're so excited to learn more about Latin, and you give us so little homework on the weekends... Could you recommend us some outside reading?"

     Enter Nicholas Ostler's book, Ad Infinitum: A Biography of Latin. I admit that it wasn't the most gripping text I read this summer, but I hastily add that it was probably the most informative. This book will give you a context for thinking about the great language we study: where does Latin come from? Why do we call the language "Latin," even though we call its original speakers "Romans"? How did the medieval Catholic Church shape the development of Latin? How does Latin evolve (or devolve, depending whom you ask) into the various Romans languages still spoken today?

 

 

     All these and other interesting questions are explained with a surprising combination of academic thoroughness and comprehensibility, even to high school students.

     Remembering the words of Sir Francis Bacon - "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested" - I place this text in that first category: pick it up, read whatever section jumps out at you, and feel free either to set it aside or take another bite.

    

     First student to ask me about it can borrow my copy for the rest of the trimester! The rest of you can purchase a copy on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Ad-Infinitum-A-Biography-Latin/dp/0802716792