I love it!

Sometimes it takes you a while to really appreciate the things that you have. Cambridge has been like that for me. Ever since last year, it has been an unceasing unearthing of little gems.

Today was my day 'off'. I cleaned my room, did my laundry, and went to Grantchester. As my friend notes, the quiet pasture here really is Tolkien's 'shire'; I remember the old man from last spring who set up his canvas to paint the river and its trees. Things like that I don't think I'll ever forget.

In the afternoon I went to town for lunch, and passing by the Cambridge University Press Bookshop (as I had done a million times before, unwaveringly) this caught my eye:

A little context: the direction of my dissertation has recently taken a turn toward socio-historical interests. So I popped in, picked up a copy and began reading (Anthony Grafton is the celebrated Henry Putnam Professor of History at Princeton, winner of the Balzan prize). What struck me was this: beside the new case of books set up near the door was the sign 'Publication Date: 8 March'. * Insert gaping mouth *. 8 March was yesterday!! Too cool. It hit me then that being here enables immediate access to some of the world's most cutting-edge research. At the till I commented to the man how effective those book displays are; no wonder they have cleaners that come each day to make the windows squeaky clean and painters to touch up the super white sill. The book is now safely in my bag - shall be my reading on the train to London tomorrow ;)

It gave the phrase 'hot off the press' a whole new meaning.

Posted on March 9, 2007 at 09:16AM