What I'm Reading

Title: Waste and Want: A Social History of Trash
Author: Susan Strasser
Got it: half.com

I read this book for research. It explains what people used to do with trash, mainly in the 1800's. For example, it talks about how people would make old clothing over into new outfits, turn sheets, use cooking fats to make soap, fix broken items because they knew how those items worked and had spare parts around, and so on. She also details how these attitudes changed over time from then to now.


Title: Natural Dyes and Home Dying
(formerly, Natural Dyes in the United States)
Author: Rita J. Adrosko
Got it: library

This book describes the different plants and minerals that can be used to make dyes, how this process is done in each case, and what colors are produced. It also explains how colorfast each dye is on various cloth materials. I wanted to know which dyes and colors would have been most common in the past, and this book gave this information.