Thursday, May 19, 2005

Cranky Professor Sends a Meme

Cranky Professor Sends a Meme



I've been resisting memes lately, but when the Cranky One, who is one of my oldest friends, passes one on, I must perforce respond.

Total Number of Books I've Owned: Ever? I have no idea. I had books at my mother's, many of which have been snagged by my neice and nephew and books in boxes left at my dad's, which he may have given away by now ... When I moved back from Germany, soon-to-be-XADH guilted me into getting rid of about 10 boxes of books, "you'll never need" -- well, no, not if I weren't going to be an academic! Now I find I really need a lot of them, and am having to spend even more money to replace them. Grump. But let's say it's still under a thousand, mostly because I use libraries A Lot, and have never been one to buy books unless I know I'll use them again.

Last Book I Bought: Not counting books in transit from B&N (The Academic Self and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell), Simon MacLean's Kingship and Politics in the Late Ninth Century, Alexander Murray's From Roman to Merovingian Gaul, and Paul Dutton's Carolingian Civilization and Charlemagne's Courtier. Yes, all on the same day at AHA.

Last Book I Read: fiction: re-read Darkover Landfall; non-fiction -- besides catching up on journals and re-reading my thesis? Ruiz and Winks, Medieval Europe and the World, which I will not be adopting.

Five Books that Mean a Lot to Me: Like Cranky Prof., I'm not sure -- what day of the week? Today, I say ...
  1. Jane Austen, Persuasion. It's my favourite of all her books, followed possibly by Mansfield Park
  2. Ronald Syme, The Roman Revolution, because it is just so good
  3. The Aeneid,especially book four
  4. Codex Diplomaticus Fuldensis and Annales Fuldensis. I could not do my work without them.
  5. To Kill A Mockingbird because it may be perfect, and it's always good.


I'm tagging New Kid and Sharon for this one! I'd tag more of you, but I have to let them have victims, too!


Ooh! Ooh! Just got an e-mail from Rural State U -- Phone interview next week!!!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You have such good book taste! Persuasion is my favorite of Jane Austen's novels, too. Syme is a master. And the Aeneid is one of my favorite things of all time, although I prefer books 9-11.

Ahistoricality said...

Memes were bad enough when they were voluntary. This "tag you're it" stuff make me nervous.

Another Damned Medievalist said...

Thanks, everyone for the vibes!

Ahistoricality -- I would only tag people I know would have no compunction about telling me to eff-off!

Ancarett -- no, I haven't. I've only done a couple of phone interviews. The ones for the job I really wanted were great, but there was no script, and they were individual interviews. The panel interview I did was the first, and was very awkward. I have to say, I'm a bit nervous.

Matthew Gabriele said...

So, you're a Carolingianist (or as the British say, a "Car-o-lin-gee-anist") are you? Love the late Carolingians myself...

Another Damned Medievalist said...

Exactly as the Brits say! Which of course makes me a bit less anonymous -- good thing ADM is really more of a pseudonym ;-) I actually span the whole period, but in an area less commonly researched by English-speakers, till very recently. And I'm finding that there's a lot to be said for starting a bit earlier AND going a bit later (thank you, Gerd Althoff!)