“I recently finished reading ‘Dante, A Life,’ by Alessandro Barbero. I decided to read the book because I am a dual Italian-American citizen, and I thought I should know more about the person T.S. Eliot said “is at least as great as Shakespeare.” I knew that Dante wrote ‘The Divine Comedy,’ but in addition to authoring that masterpiece and other famous works, I didn’t know he had been a knight and a member of the faction that had ruled Florence in the 13th and 14th centuries. When his clique was overthrown, he was banished from the city he loved, never to return. The book tells how he then, ‘lost his house, his lands, his social status and his wife,’ and was even sentenced to death. He spent the last 20 years of his life wandering in exile, ‘walking up and down another man’s stair’ as Dante himself said. He is known as the Father of the Italian Language, because before him all written works were in Latin. People in Italy spoke in widely differing dialects, and it was Dante by his writings who ‘created’ the beautiful language we know today as Italian. I easily saw why this book is a best seller in Italy!” — DAN POSSUMATO, Brunswick

Mainers, please email to tell us about the book on your bedside table. In a paragraph or two, describe the book and be sure to tell us what drew you to it. Do your reading habits lighten up in summertime? Is the book on your nightstand a devour-in-a-single-afternoon beach read or a long, leisurely read you can delve into on long summer afternoons? We want to hear what you are reading and why. Send your selection to pgrodinsky@pressherald.com, and we may use it as a future Bedside Table.