Books from Bass: Back on Campus

Tragedy has struck.
A prelude:  I put holds on books at my university library many days ago so that I would have reading material ready for me on campus.  Because I’ve run out of books! I know, it’s super rare for me and thus all the more horrifying.  So I was feeling that anticipatory little tingle every time Bass Library sent me an email telling me one of my books was available for pickup.
BUT! Because of the long weekend (class only begins on Tuesday, post- MLK day (the only time Yale actually gives us the Monday holiday) combined with the winter hours of winter break… the library is closed.
Until Tuesday. 

They’re lying about the hours online, but don’t be fooled.  They have my five books in the underground (Bass is a basement library under Cross Campus).  The doors are locked an the lights are off. There’s a closed sign on the door.

Here’s what they’re holding hostage:

• My Mortal Enemy, WIlla Cather
• Thus Were Their Faces, Silvina Ocampo: Inspired by reading about her in Alberto Manguel’s With Borges.
• Cornell Woolrich Omnibus: Only for Rear Window.
• This Craft of Verse, Borges: A transcription from tapes of Borges’ lectures at Harvard.
• Allure, Diana Vreeland

 

There are many excellent advantages to Yale’s library service (Orbis).  Namely, they’ve got a lot of obscure and old books (you can’t check out the Gutenberg Bible, but we do have one) and they deliver the book to the check out desk, which is superb when the directions for finding a book among millions look like the photo above.  Of course, downside: I am bookless.

Watched and Read Over Break

Sigh. I’m back at Yale and it’s so sad because it’s so cold and not my home but at the same time it’s so good because Lily’s here and Minerva (my cat) is so happy to be an only cat again.

I have my new calendar up and I used my unpacking as a chance to rearrange and to admire everything I own. I think there’s a great value in taking the time to want the things you have. I also bought that pair of J. Crew houndstooth socks I’ve been ogling for months (I made Dad buy them for me as a going away present). Proud to say they were $5.30 marked down from $12.50. We had dinner at Blue State and I failed to get to Bass Library before it closed. I have a foot high stack of things to return (and even more to check out- I think my check out list may be on the table for tomorrow).
And I think the new semester is the perfect time to debut a new toothbrush. It’s time, you know?
Now that I’m back on campus, I hope that my pleasure reading and film viewing won’t stall out too much, but realistically I know that it will.