Daily Life in Holland in the Year 1566 by Rien Poortvliet

This one qualifies as a coffee table book because of its size. Being of Dutch Heritage and living Pella, my interest was alerted by the title. When I picked it up I was further drawn by the painted pictures and the handwritten text. I started reading page after page, and was soon hooked. I sat down with it two or three times and read it through entirely. At first I thought it was going to be a tale of the author's ancestry. There is a little of his ancestors in it, but it is primarily about what life was like back then. It was fascinating to imagine what life is like without running water or electricity. Dressing, bathing, and cleaning were much, much harder back then, which explains the fact that things were a lot dirtier and that there was a lack of hygiene. Travel and entertainment were a lot less pleasant than nowadays. The fact that a lot more people were poor and hungry was also evident. There was a long, hard winter, political unrest, and the plague to deal with as well. All in all it is amazing that some people actually survived it. This was really and enjoyable book and has cured me from nostalgically wanting to live in the past. I have decided that the modern age is not so bad after all!