Cut!

Once again, my hair has been trimmed to a more socially acceptable size. Last time I visited my Belgian hairdresser was last October, and by last Monday my hair was regularly obscuring my vision and was well down to my shoulders. A visit there is always good, and this one was no exception. We talked about Belgian politics, city planning and infrastructure, Brugge, tourists, etc. Luckily there was lots of hair to be cut, so our conversation wasn't cut short prematurely (har har, pun!).

Spring has also arrived, so my shorter hair fits the season. The people of this locality have not realised what Spring is about, though, and despite the warm and sunny days we had early in the week the majority of them still wore their coats with (mostly fake) fur collars. Eejits.

And with Spring the annual festivity that is the Boekenfestijn has also come to the MECC in Maastricht. Basically, it's a massive sale of older or damaged book editions for very fine prices. The assortment this year seemed a little less interesting when it came to history than last year, but the three books I bought ("Deser landen crijchsvolk" by Olaf van Nimwegen, "The English Civil War" by Tristram Hunt, and the Decameron by Boccaccio) are all very good, and particularly the first was a complete and happy surprise; the book sells for 49,95€ in normal bookstores, yet I bought it for 24€.
There were small creases on the bottom of most of the editions, and so they had probably been set aside due to damage, with the top of the book's pages been marked with a black line to indicate that they were not for normal sale. I was more than lucky, however: a critical examination of the pile of books revealed a copy which not only lacked the black line on top, but also showed no significant creases - ie a perfect quality book. Go me!
The book studies the Dutch army between 1588 and 1688 in great detail - the only quality book I know of that attempted this. It's quite unique in that aspect, and I know the writer (he also wrote a book about the Austrian War of Succession): it should be a good read. Van Nimwegen is a bit overkeen on the idea of military revolution, however - a theory I cannot support. But this does not prevent him from delivering excellent and thorough studies.

"The English Civil War" by Tristram Hunt has as sub-title "At first hand", and the book interests me for two reasons: firstly, I haven't read a proper study about the war yet, and could do with a decent introduction; secondly, the book centres on accounts by eyewitnesses. The psychology of the soldier has always been one of my main interests in warfare, and it should prove interesting even if for that reason alone. It seems, though, that Hunt, from the little I read, fits in the tradition of English story-telling historians and delivers not just a good study but also a good book.

As to the Decameron, well, it's a classic, and as I try to be at least a little familiar with the great medieval literature, I couldn't leave it there. I have yet to see how easily I'll get through it, though, but any work of literature that studies actual society rather than ideal society is useful in one way or another.