Portrait of Clara (as a chemist)
2 weeks ago
Friday, November 9, 2007
The Geek's Dilemma
I just found out that I have $300 in "research supply funds" from my University in an account somewhere, which has to be used by the end of 2007 or it expires. This news has thrown me into a frenzy of bookbuying, because I can't think of anything else under the category of "research supplies" that I could use. $300 may not be a giant heap of cash for books, especially since some of the scholarly books I'd buy top the $100 mark. Should I really waste more than half of my newfound wealth on my own copy of Lewalski's seminal but decades-old Protestant Poetics? I think not. Instead, I've decided to pick up some texts that, unlike Donne and Shakespeare, may not get published in a hundred editions every decade. Like a three-volume Complete Works of Francis Quarles. Or a UK-published collected Southwell. Stuff I get to use bookfinder.com for! And I no longer have to deface library copies with my pencilled marginalia! And I'm making a wishlist, so that the next time mystery money shows up unannounced, I will not be caught unawares.
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4 comments:
mystery money--what a great category. I like this idea very much, and I am going to propose it to my institution.
Two big spots of "rrrraarrrrggh" for me on this one:
1) Money. Books. Abe Books, specifically. Rrraaaarrrrrgh. The UK is both a terrible and a wonderful place in this regard.
2) Scribbled marginalia. I wish I had yours at the moment, and not some git's endless iterations of "important," "very important," and "VERY IMPORTANT" in the margins of my ("the library's") complete More. Best bit? Not one of the points indicated is even remotely "important," let alone VERY. So keep scribbling -- some of us appreciate adept defacers. Rrrraarrrrrrgh.
Funny--I was just reading a library copy and someone had written in the margin, next to the word Eucharist, "This is a sacrament!"
See, as previously discussed--I would love to have your notes scribbled in a book (and did, in fact, find them quite useful when you loaned me your copy of the Tricomi article on TA). Other library patrons, however, are not half so bright.
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