|
library haunting
I've always loved libraries, and I've always found the idea of being a "library haunt" to be attractive. The University of Illinois has a pretty good library, but I can't say that I've really haunted it: all too often, when I'm done with teaching and office hours for the day, I find myself just wanting to go home and relax.
I'm hoping to change that: this semester my roommate (the esteemed Harvey P.) and I have secured a private study room, and I've built "library time" into my schedule. So hopefully more haunting will be the result.
For me, haunting involves more than just hanging out in the library and reading whatever book I'm working on. That's something I could do at home. I see haunting as involving a certain degree of unstructured drift: browsing around in the stacks and grabbing whatever looks interesting. Last week this included books with titles like Babylon Is Everywhere, Squatters as Developers: Slum Development in Mumbai, City A-Z: Urban Fragments, and Uses of Disorder: Personal Identity and City Life (described on the cover as "The best available contemporary defense of anarchism").
Most of these books (aside from the excellent City A-Z)weren't all that rewarding upon closer inspection but that's OK: library drifting should be all about temporary engagement. Maybe I'll do some deep research later, we'll see. |
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
10:28 AM
|
