Reflection on process

The daily Bookshelf column of the Wall Straeet Journal stuctured my academic work this week.  At the time it had a feeling of active whim-sey, yet at the end, I have a feeling of no-accomplishment.  Maybe because I allowed myself to drift from project to project.  Or maybe because I never reached a state of flow.  Or perhaps because I shrank from reading the review on "The forum and the tower", (about professors and politics) as the link between thinking and doing.  I'll try something different this week.

The weekend project is the upstairs library -- it must assimilate books from Fairfield (where were had two walls covered with bookshleves) into the collection established since 1970 when we bought this house.  (I can hear you saying"good luck!") We ourged heavily as we moved from Fairfiled, giving away books to colleages and sending others to new homes far away. But we still ended up bring about four carton's worth.  I'm sorting by type -- how many (English/American) dictionaries and how many Bibles does one need?  And what about those best-loved, and now in tatters, children's books?  Or originals of theses, commencement programs, and essential research/"lab" notebooks?  All decisions that must be made.

Jill's research notebooks: 7/4/91 to present

I think I'll be glad to return to the academic on Monday!