Today is the first big day of move-in for the academic year. People have been filtering in early over the last week, but today the doors of all 14 halls are officially open. Our office is open in case anything goes awry, but with as much planning as everyone has been doing, it should move like clockwork.
In other news, though, as is our custom, there are a few things I ran across this week that I want to share with you. Enjoy!
- I have a love/meh relationship with this piece on “Reading Well.” Things I like – the encouragement to read slowly and savor what you read, to re-read books you adore (especially by audiobook – I LOVE doing this), and to make the effort to make personal reading recommendations (btw, that’s one of my favorite things – when someone has read something and is like “I think you would like it – here you go”) rather than just broad ones (although I do enjoy broad recommendations, too). As a chronic chronicler, I am intrigued by the idea of not having any idea what’s on your shelves – just wandering through, constantly discovering things. I’m not sure I have the personality for that, but it’s a romantic thought. Things that elicited a hearty scoff – book clubs ruin nothing shut your mouth sir, and in defending fiction’s role in learning and being influenced and becoming a more well-rounded, excellent human (with which I heartily agree), he seemed to imply that most nonfiction doesn’t allow for that, which I haven’t found to be the case. Also, speaking of becoming a more well-rounded human – an “unsystematic thinker,” if you will – perhaps all the books one mentions in one’s piece about reading to be more open to the world and its stories shouldn’t just be those written by men. Ahem. At any rate, the piece definitely got a reaction, so there’s that.
- Death by Water by Kerry Greenwood – I don’t always post mini-reviews of each book I read in a series, because I tend to view the series as one really large book and would basically say the same thing about all of them. But I like it when authors of long-running series (e.g., this is book 15 of Phryne Fisher) mix up the setting so that we get a couple of familiar characters but otherwise a whole new cast. This one was a thoroughly enjoyable escape and just what I needed last weekend. I also like to spend time in August reading about vacations where you need sweaters. Let me live vicariously through you, Miss Fisher.
- Oh gosh, I love this so much, both the tribute and Emily Levine’s reading of “You Can’t Have It All.” Take a minute to give yourself the treat of listening to it as you read along.
- I also really like Frederick Joseph’s take on the Foxx/Aniston incident. We talked about a lot of these issues in training this week with my staff, particularly as they pertain to responsibility and accountability in conflict resolution.
- I have joined Book Chat Noir. First, because it’s a cute name. Second, because they suck up to my people (i.e., introverts). Third, importing my Goodreads list seemed easy (Asterisk. I have 4,571 imports, which may have broken BCN. My book list page shows up as a gray box and then gives me the dead face and says it overheated or something. Dang.). Fourth, it promises to (eventually…hopefully) be more customizable than Goodreads and also is not owned by Amazon (as far as I can tell – Amazon’s reach is pretty vast). Fifth, it is free. A win most of the way around in my book.
I hope you’re having a good Friday!
M. Suzanne Terry 
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