Welcome to Litsy!

Pre-exam brain is not making much headway with this right now, even though I find non-fiction soothing. Lots of history of Christianity, so far, which is pretty inevitable.

It's fascinating to read about the amount and variety of medieval graffiti in churches, and the fact that it seems clear some of it at least was sanctioned and even had a devotional purpose. The author concludes little, which is unsatisfying, but he isn't wrong that in many of these cases we simply cannot know.

This is interesting so far, but mostly... we don't really know how to explain a lot of the graffiti, so there are few conclusions we can come to. Every chapter ends with a kind of “but really, we don't know“, which is fair, I just wish we did know!

Recent home library acquisition:

📖 The Anglo-Saxon State by James Campbell

Which will win, my distaste for history of science or my love for medieval shit? Medieval shit, it turns out. A concise little summary of how it's wrong to label the medieval era as stagnant, with lots of interesting bits about engineering, astronomy, clockwork, but more importantly their impact on society. That said, Gimpel is VERY based in the mid-1970s and draw some far fetched (we've seen) conclusions about the fate of the western world.

Random book from our home library:

📖 Life in the Castle in Medieval England by John Burke

"... That christianity, by destroying classical animism, brought about a basic change in the attitude towards natural objects and opened the way for their rational and unabashed use for human ends..."

Recent acquisition:

📖 The Eagle and the Hart: The Tragedy of Richard II and Henry IV by Helen Castor

All about the turbulent Merovingian dynasty

I liked this book enough that it‘s tough to review here. There is just too much I want to talk about. Shakespeare, Richard II, king at 10, riding out amongst the mob of the Peasants Revolt in 1381, his disinterest in his country, and quest for absolute power. Henry IV, who usurped the throne, was his cousin, the same age, and loyal until he felt threatened. Also - Richard was never insane. An awesome book on the Women‘s Prize longlist.