Nice illustrated history of the colour blue, open on an Egyptian page - not necessarily representative of the book as a whole, which is mostly Western-centric, but I like the painting and the shades of blue in it 😁
pickThis book is not a casual coffee table book as it is filled with historical detail in how there used to not be a name for blue, it was the color of barbarians, how blue gained popularity, the symbolism of blue, where and how garments were dyed with woad and indigo and so forth. It‘s about coats of arms, painters and religion. Wished more had been said about non-Europeans use of the color blue, but otherwise I found it fascinating.
pickRe the quote up above: I've been complaining about 19&20th C men's fashion for years without drawing this connection. It takes a Frenchman, dude.
Overall a good book with far too little focus on contemporary and non - western history. I love the High Medieval period as much as the next nerd, but the really interesting cultural stuff was hidden in the last 10 pages after thousands of words about Dyeing Guild regulations of the 1400s.
To spare my stomach I didn't go anywhere last weekend, and thus didn't get much reading done. I took my book with me for the timed wait for an abdominal CT scan yesterday, but it turns out that forcing down 1.5L of contrast liquid was quite enough, and then I got a reminder from the library. So here I am. Umbria had one sugar bun left! Feeling ok so far.
Coffee still prevented by stomach pain, this peach tart was deemed almost acceptable by my gastric tract. Book is pretty interesting but long-winded.
Another coffee-less coffee shop visit (and apparently a raspberry oat bar is enough to anger my stomach)
I haven't got much reading done in the last week or so because my stomach has started Behaving again (in 2014 I had constant gastric pain for 7 months without the doctors finding anything wrong with me, it was concluded to be overactive nerves in the stomach and I was given meds for it) and I can't have coffee 😢😢😢😢😢 (or chocolate, or acidic stuff, or fats, or alcohol) . I miss coffee very much, but I read best in coffee shops, so...
Found by Lucas, borrowed from the library hence the horrible sheen; color themed books by That Guy Who Wrote the Stripes Book (this is much better bound though. )
Post a cover you love each day for 7 days, no explanation. Use the hashtags and tag someone else. (For my own accounting purposes, this is the fifth of seven.) #7days7covers #covercrush Join in, @belacat !
"Goethe gave his hero [Werther] a blue coat because blue was in style in Germany in the 1770s; but the success of his book reinforced this fashion, spread it throughout Europe, and caused it to leap from the realm of dress into the arts of painting, engravings, and porcelain." #somethingforseptember #septphotochallenge #bluebooks
Blue: The History of a Color | 
