Spent $40 on a used Roman history book and it ruined my entire weekend in the best way

I picked up this old paperback about what if the Roman Empire never collapsed at a thrift store for like $4. The guy who wrote it really dove into stuff like how Latin might still be a living language and how their roads would connect Europe even more. I ended up staying up till 3am on a Friday reading it and then spent Saturday making a whole timeline of how things could have gone different. My wife thought I was nuts sitting there with my notebook and highlighters lol. But for $4 it gave me like 15 hours of total nerding out which is way better than spending $20 on a movie I forget in two days. Has anyone else found a cheap book that totally sucked you into an alternate history rabbit hole?

3 comments

3 Comments

emerym3623d agoMost Upvoted

My buddy found this old book about a world where the Library of Alexandria never burned. He spent his whole spring break drawing maps of all the knowledge spreading everywhere instead of doing homework lol. Best $3 he ever wasted.

diana61723d ago

Actually I've found the opposite to be true. Those cheap thrift store books usually have outdated scholarship and the authors make wild guesses based on stuff we've learned was wrong. Your mileage may vary but $4 got you a fun fantasy, not real history.

quinna8922d ago

What specific claims in that book did you fact check that turned out to be totally wrong?