Victorian photo

 

"How to Be a Victorian" by Ruth Goodman (2013)

 

I ADORE Ruth Goodman ever since I first glimpsed her in BBC documentaries about living on various "historic farms" by BBC. In fact, I might even be a bit of Ruth Goodman groupie, I would always watch anything with her, with greatest interest and pleasure. However, it turned out that so far I have actually never read any of the books she wrote and as 2026 is the year where I decided to read only authors I have never read before, this was a perfect choice. It might sound strange that I decided to read this while lying next to a swimming pool in Maspalomas, but hey, nothing better than to read about other people's suffering to enjoy and appreciate one's own life.

Goodman was everything I expected and than some. She did beautiful work on researching how majority of ordinary people lived back in the day - not just aristocrats and kings who are always mentioned and described, but ordinary people from all levels of class. "How to Be a Victorian" follows 24 hours in lives of Victorians - from getting up, getting dressed, breakfast, how did they travel to work, what exactly did they eat trough the day, what did they do in their free time, etc. It was packed with wonderfully crazy details and informations, for example how undertakers often sold hair stolen from corpses, babies were given opium so mothers could leave them at home and go to work, how the original idea behind public swimming pools was actually something else completely, the details about personal hygiene (brushing hair twice a day was perfectly fine and preferred to hair washing) and much, much more. And of course, heartbreaking accounts of small children going to work, something that would absolutely not be tolerated today. 

"My research has given me tremendous sympathy and admiration for those who somehow, despite dire circumstances, battled through. People such as Tony Widger, who quietly worked away in his kitchen in his underwear at dawn, carefully preparing a cup of tea and a biscuit for him and his wife to have in bed before they embarked upon their exhausting day’s industry of fishing and housework respectively. Or Hannah Cullwick, who was required to complete two hours of work before preparing her employer’s breakfast, and then her own. And not to forget six-year-old William Arnold, who stood alone in a field in January from dawn until dusk scaring crows, without even a bite to eat until he walked home after dark. All these people, ordinary in so many ways, seem to me heroic in their endurance, fortitude, love and commitment to their families."

Dancing Queen Cover In Medieval/Byzantine Greek BARDCORE (Original by ABBA)

"The Andromeda Strain" by Michael Crichton (1969)

 

Boldly going where I have not been before and continuing with my decision that 2026 I will read authors that I never read before, after old fashioned 1902. western, I decided to check out something completely different and took The Andromeda Strain". It was not the first novel by Michael Crichton but first he published under his own name (until than he was publishing what he was calling "airport books" - "I write them fast and the reader reads them fast and I get things off my back."). There is also a movie, but I really wanted to read the novel. The change of pace was very welcome and it was so refreshing to switch from old fashioned western to something relatively modern - even though it was published in 1969, it was still super exciting.

In the middle of the night, group of scientists are quickly summoned to a secret place in Nevada desert where they have to research satellite that brought some kind of lethal microbes to earth. The little town where the satellite had landed was completely wiped out, except some crazy old man and a crying baby. It turns out the deaths were caused by an extraterrestrial microbe transported by a meteor that crashed into the satellite, knocking it from orbit. The miracle of all of this is that Crichton packs his novel full of technicality and medical jargon that would usually surely be boring but in his capable hands it somehow turns into extremely exciting thriller and I found myself totally immersed and reading it until 2:30 a.m. last night. Just briliant!