Do you know of Google Scholar? I'll admit, nerd that I am, that even before I came back to grad school, I used Google Scholar to soothe my nerd-like yearnings.
Hyper-specific and academic slants on obscure books or sociological trends-- got 'em! Crazy comparative literature papers from international universities- yes! Even tons of awesome written work on theater and specific eras, performers, innovators. (Jennifer Tepper, if you're not already using this site, you should be!) Any thought you've ever had, there's basically a fascinating academic paper written on it-- all a google search away.
And now that I'm on day 3875619437659 of utter emersion in a paper that still isn't coherent, I will tell you that it's the only thing about writing this that has made me infinitely happy-- perhaps to the detriment of my actually writing the paper. Wow, fun! Comparing The Virgin Suicides to the Magical Realism Gabriel Garcia Marquez!? The male gaze and the first person plural/ collective narrator!? Intricate character studies of Sue Bridehead in Jude the Obscure?! You see, I just keep finding new, awesome papers that pertain to my topic and so I keep reading when I should be synthesizing and making a witty, persuasive argument.
Anyhow, even if you're not in school, but just want some fascinating side reading about whatever your pet subject may be, I recommend the deep deep well of nerd info that is Google Scholar.
Just don't start any new searches if you're hungry or need to be somewhere in the next 8 hours or so, because it will suck you in!
PS- did you know there was a study on the amount of energy one google search takes? And the answer is "the amount of energy required to boil a cup of tea." (I think we can feel certain a Brit did this study.) So everytime you search, the world is expending the amount of energy it takes to boil a cup of tea to bring you your results. Food for thought.
This is not precisely relevant to today's post -- although I should say that your post is not making me miss grad school! -- but as we're moving to St. Andrews in less than a month I'm hoping you won't mind answering a question. What do you wish you'd brought with you from the US but didn't?
ReplyDeleteyay! hopefully the weather in december won't instantly make you dislike it here. :) It does get dark pretty early!
ReplyDeleteYour question...hmmm... I wish I had brought more of my books. That may just be a grad school thing though because I end up using books I already owned in my essays and having to re-buy them (as I did today.) I wish I'd brought every sweater I could get my hands on. You literally can never have too many. (Though, you can obviously get those here.) Other than that, they have almost everything I like here. Plus, some things we don't have and are awesome. If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. :) Happy packing!