So while my laptop is waiting for the new hard disk, I've realized I need something to replace video games so I went to the library. It felt so good to renew membership, I got to talk to a gorgeous woman and the first thing I asked was - where are your mushroom books?
I got an extensive mushroom guide, a tree guide, and two nonfiction books by women.
I immediately got obsessed with the mushroom guide. You see, I forgot, in my depth of online research, that a book could contain all that information but perfectly categorized and summarized for my convenience. I was immediately able to recognize several mushrooms I've been looking at in the forest and got a much better idea of mushroom families and species, being able to look at them next to each other. Books are freaking amazing.
The author of the book was french, and also unknown, book was created via book packaging deal so the author isn't listed. But we know its a french person because it was translated from french, and the author made very personal, opinionated, judgmental comments on each mushroom's edibility and taste. I got to read remarks like 'barely edible', 'overrated' and 'zero value' on the mushrooms the author didn't like. They wrote 'barely edible' on poofballs and chicken of the woods, which offended me!
Some vague ideas about edibility were also present; instead of declaration, some mushrooms just have 'suspicious mushroom' or 'better not eat' or 'smart to leave it be' remarks written on their pages. Few have 'probably poisonous' or 'edibility uknown' written next to them. I was cracking up reading this, this is an excellent common lore type of info with no scientific backup that I yearn for. Tell me what people have been saying about this mushroom!
I do think if I didn't know anything about mushrooms, a 500 species guide would be overwhelming, but I knew just enough to have a good time and build upon existing knowledge.
Another fun book I read was a nonfiction about an all female nursing school in the 70s; I grabbed it because I was curious about how life in my country looked back then. And it was described as almost idylic; happy childhood in nature with a female best friend, author realizing early on m*n are useless, deciding on nursing school because of a female role model and then traveling to the big city to attend.
The atmosphere in the school is described as extremely cooperative. First week the girls decided to get a vase and big bouqet of flowers to make the classroom feel more homely. I was in disbelief; at the high school I attended males lit the floor on fire first week into it, and proceeded to break most everything in it by the end of schooling. The difference feels massive!
The girls in the book were friendly and kind, they had a few misunderstandings and insecurities but ultimately supported one another through everything. They seemed to respect one another and valued each other highly. I was waiting to hear about lesbianism but sadly that didn't come. The crimes these girls committed to get out of a bad grade though, were insane.
One time they were supposed to go through surprise questioning they sent someone to sabotage the electricity and stage a blackout. The culprit then pretended to be injured to prevent them fixing the fuses. Another time a professor told them to wait in front of his locked office to be surprise questioned. One of the girls grabbed a medicinal needle, stuck it into the lock and broke it off. The office could no longer be unlocked, and they had to replace the entire lock. Questioning was cancelled.
The little criminals! And they got away with all of it, had excellent grades and graduated with success. Nobody snitched. Female solidarity in action.
During the book's progress the political and economic state of the country keeps declining and this is what I was interested in, how things used to be under socialism, and how the war and capitalism took over. Protagonist keeps voicing concern over nurse's rights and statuses and financial safety getting revoked and stripped from them and what that will do to the country's healthcare and protection from diseases. And she's right! Things are horrible and nobody even remembers feeling safe in case they fall ill. It's good to know things can be different because they once were, and we lost it, rather than to believe this is 'the best we can do'.
I'm getting more books; I got an introduction to latin language because I wanna see what all those latin names of trees and mushrooms mean. Latin names sound so professional but in reality they're on the nose and funny. For instance there's a mushroom called 'russula virescens', and I love her, she sounds so posh. However in latin, russula just means red, and virescens means green, so the true latin name is just 'red green' which is funny and way less sophisticated.
I hope to find more funny stuff! I am in love with the library, I am gaining knowledge way faster than doing my own research. Sometimes the internet is worse!
