What Did You Do During the Pandemic, Daddy?

Painting by Alfons Spring, before 1908
From Wikimedia Commons

Baking? Baking sourdough bread? Oh, for the love of Ceres, really?

No, I am not baking. Nor am I learning a new language, nor participating in online dance parties, nor am I binge-watching "I, Claudius" (which The Economist seems to have recommended as family entertainment during the lockdown), nor listening to the collected lectures of Bertrand Russell. Though that last one (another Economist suggestion) has at least the virtue of somewhat appealing to my sense of curiosity.

Of course I haven't been writing. A lot of writers I know are unable to write at the moment, and in this I'm no different. Where I do stand apart is in having the luxury to not write and still be able to contribute toward the household expenses. I'm grateful for this.

What I have been doing, a lot, is reading. In some cases I've been revisiting old favourites (Asterix, Tintin, the social comedies of Georgette Heyer, the histories of Barbara Tuchman) and in other cases I've been experiencing new-to-me books my friends have long recommended. The historical novels of Robert Neill, and the YA novels of Robert A. Heinlein, for example. Not only have I been enjoying reading the Heinleins, I have also enjoyed the (virtual) conversations about them I've been having with Do-Ming.

By a fortunate coincidence I decided, last New Year's Eve, that in 2020 I would keep a list of the books I read. As a result I am in a position to confirm that, in the six weeks we have been confined to quarters, I have read forty books. My total for 2020 is 104 books read, with four currently on the go.

For some reason I find reading much more soothing than watching any sort of video.