Worked on a few different things last night. Started a neck gaiter for the Dulaan project out of some brown Muskoka wool. Also knit a bit on the cabled socks.

But today, I want to talk about reading:

I finished "The Little Ice Age" over the weekend. It was a good book but the way it was organized (or perhaps the way I read it) I don't remember terrifically much of the detail - more of the generalities. I do have a few places where I broke my not-writing-in-books rule to put asterisks or to draw a vertical line next to passages I wanted to be able to find again.

I almost immediately started Barbara Tuchman's "A Distant Mirror," which is about the same time period, because Brian Fagan (the author of Little Ice Age) referred to it heavily. It's very interesting; she's set the book up so you're following the life of a minor noble (Enguerrand de Coucy - actually Enguerrand the VI, if I remember rightly.). It's very interesting, particularly learning about things like the sumptuary laws, which limited how "commoners" could dress and even what they could eat. Imagine laws like that getting passed today! (Well, they wouldn't, because of the total and complete difference in the view of commerce between then and now - back then, commerce was seen as BAD because it took money away from the church and the nobles and enriched the merchant class, now we're pushed to buy Now More Than Ever.). It is amazing to see the difference in attitudes - the 14th century was totally acapitalist in its attitudes.

One thing though - she comments that the sumptuary laws were in place partly to encourage the commoner class to save its money - which then the nobles could "tap" through taxation any time they wanted to. Heh.

That got to be a little heavy, so later in the evening, I switched over to "Tears of the Giraffe," which is the second Mma Ramotswe mystery novel. One of the things that makes me happy is it picks up at almost the exact moment where "Number One Ladies..." left off - like the characters were sitting there on her veranda, just waiting for you to open up the book and start reading.

These books make me very happy. There's a humor about them, a sort of smiling bemused acceptance of the strangeness of life, that is very comforting.

I also like the fact that Mma Ramotswe is a person unto herself; she's very strong and independent and tends to think that marriage is generally an okay idea, but perhaps not something to be rushed into.

It almost surprises me that these books are fiction; I feel like the characters are real people.