Study nooks and rambling

As you saw in my last post, I have a few things that require me and my computer to be joined at the hip for the next couple weeks.  Over the course of the year, I've definitely found the spots where I work well, so allow me to take you on a tour.


Number one with a bullet is in the English faculty library.  The library has a number of large tables out in the open on the ground floor, but I feel on display there, and there's too much to look around at.  However, the "first" (American second) floor only partially covers the ground floor, and there's a little wall along the edge.  Along this wall and next to the bookcases are individual desks, and if I can snag one of these, I'm good to go.  They're bathed in natural light from the large windows, and you get a sense of people around you, but it also manages to feel fairly private.  Here's a view from about halfway down the line of desks:

What's that on my computer screen?  Glad you asked.  It's a section of my first-year review piece titled Richard Chenevix Trench and Popularizing Philology.  This Trench guy was a major influence in making the basics of language scholarship accessible and interesting for the general population.  There are about five books of his that I want to read over the summer.  He says great things like, "Language is fossil poetry...many a single word is itself a concentrated poem, having stores of poetical thought and imagery laid in it."  But moving on...


Happy place #2: Jerwood Library in Trinity Hall, mezzanine level, looking out at the lawn and King's College Chapel spires.


If this spot is occupied, I walk to the other side of the room and face across the public bridge (charmingly known as "orgasm bridge" because it's so steep that it's an effort to cycle up) and over the river to a little field.


In other news, by this time next week I'll have given my first-ever conference talk.  Check out the program (my session is at 3:00pm) by clicking here.