Explanation: Rome was a very story-oriented culture, but not necessarily in the same way later literary cultures were. While reading is associated with silence in many later European cultures, as part of the wider monastic and religious tradition of Christian contemplation integrated into even processing secular literature, the Romans were all about reading aloud. Fancy dinner parties often included a younger relative showing their skill at recitation - or a specialized slave with the same skill (less prestigious, but just as fun for the listeners) - reciting lines from poetry or literature while the guests ate. The equivalent of putting on a movie during dinner!

People are still reciting movie quotes to each other! Not me though, my memory for details was always crap.

you just have to be extremely an personality to do such a thing. ask me how I know.

in fact at dinner tonight I recited the Vogon poem from memory to about 80% accuracy despite reading it maybe 25 years ago.

To be or not to be – that is the question –
Whether 'ts nobler in the mind to suffer The sling and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles
And by opposing end them? To die; to sleep –
No more – and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache and the thousand natural shocks
The flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die; To sleep;

What do you mean that’s not party-appropriate?

Book clubs still exist…