I don't have a great frame of reference to compare this book to, but I did quite enjoy it. The subtitle, "Life Lessons from an Ancient Poet," is I think accurate in a lot of ways: the author, Eyres--a journalist/poet/critic/trained classicist--sort of explores his own past and the Roman author Horace's in view of Horace's poetry.

I found this book in the remaindered book section of my local bookstore several years ago but hadn't gotten around to reading it now; I think that, in many ways, this was the perfect time for me to read it. Like Eyres, I learned Latin growing up (though I didn't go to anywhere near the kind of stuffy grammar school that he did), and I have extremely fond memories of reading a few of Horace's Odes. I also have started, with my current abundance of time due to world events, learning Greek--a language I've wanted to pick up for years to round out the great Classical languages--so I've also been thinking a lot about the Classical world recently. And I made it to Rome a few months ago, so the more travelogue-esque portions of the book (Eyres travels to various places in Italy associated with Horace) also resonated with me in that way.

In all honesty, I'm not sure that I'd recommend this book generally just because it's so extremely niche, but I really enjoyed it a lot. It sometimes leans a little snobbish, but I think that overall the positives outweighed the snobbery. ( )

Memoir by a poet I'd never heard of, looking back on his life through his reactions to Horace's poetry at different times.

Rather rambling and there were bits that didn't really click for me. The author is a year older than me and I was surprised how many parallels there were between us despite his rather grander background. ( )