Every phrase and every sentence is an end and a beginning,
Every poem an epitaph. And any action
Is a step to the block, to the fire, down the sea's throat
Or to an illegible stone: and that is where we start.
-T. S. Eliot

2.01.2011

Introduction

I have been reading very good books for three and a half years, and have been taking very careful notes the whole time. So I have seven identical spiral-bound notebooks in the corner of my top bookshelf-- each one a storage unit containing thoughts and passages I want to remember. 

Since that has apparently worked so well for me, it's time to cut it out. I've been told that's how ruts are made, and after I was finished being miffed I realized it's true. I have to do something else. 

There is no notebook for this semester. There is only this little blog where I will write about what I read. I hope this will keep me accountable for what I say, since anyone could find and read these posts if they wanted to [unlike my notebooks, which have been for British eyes only]. And by moving this aspect of my academic life into the blogosphere, I hope to practice more diligently the art of synthesizing and conveying thoughts in a way that my notebooks never facilitated. 

I like to write. I like to write, and I am aware that writing could be part of the rest of my life. So I will practice. I will practice, and I will hope that this blogging thing will end up being more than just practice. 

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