History: The Stories of Why Things Are the Way They Are
After fiction, whether fantasy, scifi, or based in reality, my favorite genre to read is history. I particularly enjoy various pieces on different cultures and such as it helps me understand a great deal more about the world and why things are the way they are. I just finished a brilliant book by Ruth Goodman called The Domestic Revolution , which basically expounds on how the rapid shift from wood to coal burning in English homes dramatically altered not just every aspect of daily life, but also had major cultural implications that continue to the present. It was so interesting to see how everything fit together. I'll give a brief overview that will in no way do justice to this lovely piece of research. Fuel shortages and rising populations turned interest to the relatively cheap coal instead of traditional wood(this was around the reign of Elizabeth I) Wide-spread coal burning required chimneys in the common houses were previously there would gen...