Bargain Books and Medicine Chests

 I’ve decided to put my blog on hiatus for a couple of months. It was always meant to add some fun and thoughtfulness to my reading, but I’ve been finding lately that it’s actually been getting in the way because I’ve noticed that I’ve been reading with an eye on ‘WHAT I’M GOING TO SAY…’ rather than just reading for enjoyment and then deciding what I think after I’m finished. Recently, this has been making me feel like I’m planning a self-inflicted book report for school rather than my general rambling thoughts about a book.  I know a lot of this is related to general COVID grumpiness – I’m reading a lot because there is very little else to do and instead of allowing a book to take me on a journey, I’m finding myself stuck in the present because I’m taking notes for what I’m going to say in my comments. So much is out of our control at the moment, but reading and thinking about reading in the time of COVID is within my control because this is my blog. To this end I’m going to give my

To me, Bernard Cornwell is best known for writing the Sharpe novels and The Last Kingdom novels, with both sagas being made into successful TV series over the years.  So I was curious when I came across a stand-alone Bernard Cornwell on the Bargain Book Table last year, especially one with the intriguing premise that Fools and Mortals promised on the back cover. Fools and Mortals is lifted from a line in A Midsummer Night’s Dream when Puck says “Lord, what fools these mortals be!”  It’s a nice choice of title because one of the main plot lines of the book is William Shakespeare and his company planning and rehearsing the inaugural performance of the play to celebrate the wedding of the Lord Chamberlain’s granddaughter. Having said that, one of the great conceits of the book is the story isn’t really about William Shakespeare at all, even though he’s one of the chief protagonists. It’s about Richard Shakespeare, one of his brothers. Cornwell has taken the fact that Richard actually di