I always knew Terry Pratchett was a very wise chap. Now I know he was a prophet, too.

In his Wyrd Sisters, decades ago, he predicted the things going on in my country right now. Here`s an excerpt...

'Lady, the duke wishes to chop down the forests, is this not so?'
'The trees talk about me,' whispered Lord Felmet. 'They tell lies about me!'
'But,' the Fool continued, 'this policy has met with fanatical opposition.'
The duchess exploded. 'What does that matter? We rule! they will do what we say or they will be pitilessly executed!'
'But, my love, we will run out of people,' murmured the duke.
'No need, no need!'said the Fool desperately. 'What you do is, you embark upon a far-reaching and ambitious plan to expand the agricultural industry, provide long-term employment in the sawmills, open new land for development, and reduce the scope for banditry.'
This time the duke looked baffled. 'How will I do that?' he said.
'Chop down the forests.'

Well, what`s being felled here is not but forests, but also trees in cities and towns, streets, parks, whatever... Under the banner of "Environmental Betterment" and "Tidying Up" and such...

The only thing not predicted by Terry is all this is being paid for using the lavish subsidies from the EU funds. Up to planting trees:

'Exactly how does one go about knocking over the houses of people one does not like?'
'Urban clearance,' said the Fool.
'I was thinking of burning them down.'
'Hygienic urban clearance.'
'And sowing the ground with salt.'
'Marry, I suspect that is hygienic urban clearance and a programme of environmental improvements. It might be a good idea to plant a few trees as well.'
'No more trees!' shouted Felmet.
'Oh, it`s all right. They won`t survive. the important thing is to have planted them.'

Minor details differ, of course, but the important thing is the important thing: trees are being planted. Surprisingly, a few of them seem to have even survived. A thing not predicted by Terry, again, is saplings must not be bought locally, but transported from as far away as possible, so that as much as possible of the circulating means might be used up.

Tee-hee!

This is another old book well worth reading, but I cannot quite place it among the Books to Read. Matter is, I`ve only read this one in translation (a good translation, BTW), and my Books to Read pages are for books I`ve read in the source language. Therefore, for this one, a blog post will have to suffice.

Written by James Jacob Hinrich Krüss, Timm Thaler oder Das verkaufte Lachen (Timm Thaler, or the Traded Laughter) is a wonderful book for children, and grown-ups as well. It`s the story of a boy who, having sold his laughter, eventually gets to understand he should have never done it, and sets off on a long journey to get his laughter back. In the end, and with help from his friends, he succeeds.

When reading this book as a child, I simply enjoyed it. Re-reading it now has made me wonder what kind of a book it would be if written nowadays. The hypothetical modern book would undoubtedly be different. I mean, not the plot but the mood. It would certainly be angry, and most probably ugly, even though perhaps funny at the same time. But the old one, written more than half a century ago, while not all that funny (well, it kinda is, but it sorta is not), is by no means angry. It is not even really sad, even though the things depicted are mostly sad. It is... well... observantly cognitive? Anyway, what does matter is it is kind. But not sentimental. Which makes it wonderful.

I do recommend Timm Thaler! Read it. They no longer make them like that...