I started to read Umberto Eco’s novel The Name of the Rose while at the gym earlier this evening. I tried to get into the novel several times, but found the Prologue (yes, I usually read them!) overly obtuse. That in itself had stopped me from getting into the story itself, which is something I finally decided to do when I went to do some cardio at the gym (I read while on the machines, and none of the pile of magazines I have enticed me).

One of the statements in the text struck me about our present political and socio-economic challenges: “If a shepherd errs, he must be isolated from the other shepherds, but woe unto us if the sheep begin to distrust shepherds” (p 29).

Does this have a familiar ring, in an election year with seemingly obscene spikes in oil and food (and Manhattan real estate) prices?

What an engaging story.