December Update

I do not have a New Year's Eve feeling, but realized earlier today that this was the last chance of making a December entry. Even though I have not written much this autumn, I wanted to make at least one post a month.

I have sorted my bookshelves today, or rather I have started sorting my book shelves. The first hours sorting the fiction shelves went quite fast as all the books are sorted by authors and I only had to dust and put newly bought books in the right place. I also started well on the non-fiction with the easy grouping of dictionaries and reference books, but then I came to my history, theory and history books. Each time I sort out my book I decide on some small changes to make sure the books are better sorted for my present situation and some time large amounts of new books creates the need for new groups.

As I have too occupied with my teaching this autumn, the most interesting was too look at books that I have not seen for a while. It is now time to start writing a new research proposal as I expect scholarship deadlines to arrive soon. I am to attend a research proposal seminar at end of January and need to bring a research draft to that. My thoughts is to use conceptual history to make a more general historical methodology. I worked on this parallel to my thesis and I have been thinking on it lately. I now feel it is time to re-read a few books.

But before I can start reading I need to sort copied articles which has piled up. Binders have been bough, but I do not think four was enough and that has ruined my motivation. I had hopes to enter the new year with tidy shelves, but it seems I have to leave quite a bit for next year.