Day 45 since husband Jesse and I disappeared into Quarantine Lockdown on advice of our Medical Advisor, my daughter, Rebekah, before the official proclamation by the Governor of the Great State of Colorado.
Like most, we are at home during the COVID-19 pandemic that we are all dealing with worldwide: death and sickness and more death, everyone shut-in, losing jobs, businesses going bankrupt, IRAs in peril. A few people out demonstrating, blatantly violating the stay-home orders, with a "you can't tell me what to do" motif, health and safety for self and others, especially others, disregarded. No grandchildren coming over to do crafts together, difficulty with tax preparation, and erratic filling of grocery store delivery orders. And a lunatic President on the tv every night ranting and promoting disinformation. The Landmark programs and noon prayer church services on Zoom honestly provide a daily bright spot.
This extended time at home has had me sorting the books in my home office. (My darling husband Jesse says, "You and books, there's no end of it.") I have in the past sorted my library by author, topic, or when feeling particularly manic by book jacket color. This time I sorted by whether or not I remember reading it. I do it as memory serves.
The photo at left is the Novels To Be Read Bookshelf. There are two more shelves of Nonfiction that haven't made it to the Read This Soon Shelf. Amazingly, this time through I found only two duplicates headed outside to the Little Free Library in front of the house. We have extended the terms of our quarantine to include the yard, now that the weather is getting sunny and warm. Springtime in the Rockies is unpredictable, though, and planting has to wait well into May. Jesse is getting the beds ready.
It appears that I have discovered about 450 unread novels, now staring at me reproachfully on toverladen shelf. booked double. (I also have 931 books on Audible, shared electronically with daughter Abi and her wife Genea. I have not audited Audible as read/unread. As for our shared Kindle library, it seems to think we only started buying ebooks two years ago. Maybe customer assistance is swamped.)
In the sorting I discovered the book, "Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague" by Geraldine Brooks. I am now grateful for the relative mildness of the pandemic we are enduring compared to the centuries of Black Plague that swept in waves over Europe. This book, based on a real village and their true story slightly modified is specifically about the plague of 1665-66 as experienced by the residents of a village in Derbyshire, England. Deadlier and many times uglier than COVID-19, so far.
The photo at left is the Novels To Be Read Bookshelf. There are two more shelves of Nonfiction that haven't made it to the Read This Soon Shelf. Amazingly, this time through I found only two duplicates headed outside to the Little Free Library in front of the house. We have extended the terms of our quarantine to include the yard, now that the weather is getting sunny and warm. Springtime in the Rockies is unpredictable, though, and planting has to wait well into May. Jesse is getting the beds ready.
It appears that I have discovered about 450 unread novels, now staring at me reproachfully on toverladen shelf. booked double. (I also have 931 books on Audible, shared electronically with daughter Abi and her wife Genea. I have not audited Audible as read/unread. As for our shared Kindle library, it seems to think we only started buying ebooks two years ago. Maybe customer assistance is swamped.)
In the sorting I discovered the book, "Year of Wonders: A Novel of the Plague" by Geraldine Brooks. I am now grateful for the relative mildness of the pandemic we are enduring compared to the centuries of Black Plague that swept in waves over Europe. This book, based on a real village and their true story slightly modified is specifically about the plague of 1665-66 as experienced by the residents of a village in Derbyshire, England. Deadlier and many times uglier than COVID-19, so far.
People then were just as disinclined to stay home, trying to outrun the plague. The more things change, the more they stay the same, right? The plague honestly was more deadly and disgusting than what we are dealing with. In the actual "plague village" in Derbyshire, England, their year of self-imposed quarantine resulted in the death of 2/3 of the population. despite their best efforts to help each other.
Many of the problems we are dealing with, such as overwhelmed medical system, social distancing, lack of treatment and prevention, they dealt with, without vaccines or antibiotics, nor scientific understanding. Also in that Annus Mirabilis they had to deal with a breakdown of government and an explosion of mental illness, that led to flagellants starving and whipping themselves through the streets and neighbors lynching herbalists and midwives as witches.
Hopefully, we will not be cursed with a year of wonders quite so interesting as all that.