A slight uplift at the end of a depressing week

This has not generally been a good few days. I have hardly done any academic work but instead have been doing a variety of other bits and pieces. I have been working through back issues of various professional journals (something I hate but which I need as part of my increasingly forlorn job hunt); I repaired the water tank in the loft (so that water no longer drips out of the overflow pipe) and have done some prep work for re-insulating the loft; I have weeded the raised beds in the front garden and planted a load of bulbs; I have continued to sort out stuff in my study - five more boxes out to the garage; I have listed another 50 CDs on Amazon (and sold a few already). All good stuff at certain times but not when I should be working hard on my studies

The problem remains a combination of the delay in hearing from Oxford about the PhD and a recurrence of some domestic issues. Most books on doing a PhD emphasise the necessity for a good support system to be in place. Sadly that is not the case with me - quite the opposite in fact. It is tough to be motivated in such circumstances.

I didn't go to LSE this Thursday as the proposed talk was on Francis Bacon who I am not very interested in. But the biography course was good again - I got a very good report from our teacher which was nice. And I did enjoy Latin again today, even if I made a complete hash of reading my section - too many obscure names of people.

But I have had a slight pick up at the end of the week, mainly due to starting to read one of my recent book purchases - Alberto Manguel's A History of Reading. This is an extraordinarily wide-ranging work and one that I feel I am going to really enjoy. From the opening pages where he describes his own realisation that his love of reading was shared by others, I have been totally hooked.

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The opening chapter has many photos of various depictions of reading and I have been inspired to find some of my own off the internet.

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Isaac Walton in a window of Winchester Cathedral - of course the phrase "study to be quiet" is not a call to religious contemplation as its location might suggest, but is advice related to fishing from The Complete Angler - perhaps a reminder that I should go fishing at some point soon (if the weather ever improves)

The rather lovely frontplate to the collected works of Erasmus - as edited by Beatus Rhenanus, famous editor and book collector (see below). I have been reading a lot about Erasmus as I plough through books on various aspects of the Reformation - indeed it might be time for me to read a book solely on him - maybe Bainton's classic biography that I have owned for years

Two pictures of Erasmus - by Holbein and Durer respectively

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Beatus Rhenanus - the man himself

The tomb of Eleanor of Aquitaine - clearly a keen reader

Saint Dominic - founder of the Dominican order of course.

To my mind the most erotic moment in a film featuring books is the scene between Sadie Frost (as Lucy) and Winona Ryder (as Mimi) in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Lucy interrupts Mimi while she is looking at illustrations in what purports to be the Arabian Nights and then claims to have done many of the things shown - at least in her dreams. I am a big fan of this film for all sorts of reasons!

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Sadie Frost and Winona Ryder discuss things that might or might not do with their respective spouses in Dracula - pretty sure this scene wasn't in the original book!