227 A friend asks you to recommend a book: which book would you choose and why?

[singindemonhq]

I sing more languages than you may know,
And would agree, thy lives are but a show.
And on the whole, some can be entertaining,
But hear, a life of endless Gigs is draining.

Those who would judge me may say at a look,
I ain’t the kind to recommend a book.
The truth is somewhat different, (in my role,
I am at least as happy with a scroll.)
My library is, sadly, far away.
But, from my memory, it seems best to say,
That Plato wrote quite well, so Socrates,
Was shown with wit that would be sure to please,
(While Xenophon, the military kind,
Showed Socrates to be of duller mind.
But if they quote philosophy or jest,
Their writings still show their own minds the best.)

But Alcibiades wrote a journal, once,
And that’s a man that never was a dunce,
Although in war he was oft' known as rash,
In private life - well, he was into “slash,”
And “het” as well, (and things that I can’t rhyme.
Like other men of Athens in his time!)
(But I forget, the censors had their way,
There was no public printing in that day,
And there were those who thought the volumes dross,
That library was burned, to human loss.
A scroll or two, a palimpsest, no more
Were saved to serve the ages as before.)


It seems my mind has wandered far away,
The questioner said “A book”, and for today.
Will Shakespeare wrote quite well, but then erelong,
you’ll find that reading him affects your song.

Ah, fret me not, you’ll get no more from me!
I haven’t seen a bookshop recently.
It’s not your modern writers that I spurn,
Your modern “paper” is too quick to burn!

Muse, "Sweet" the singing demon.
Fandom, BTVS
Words 280