Goings On

Tracked down the rest of my comp. list books last night. I have books coming from three different used book stores in the States. I figure it is worth it, these are going to be books I live with all summer, and most of them will be core texts for my research and teaching. Saint Paul has a funny way of organizing their comps - they want a small set of foundational texts based on seven themes. My profs had less themes but tonnes more books! And huge texts too. The biggest text I have is Ernst Bloch's Principle of Hope - but I am only really responsible for about half of volume 1 and a section from volume 3. That's a relief, because volume 2 is really hard to find (if you have a spare one you'd like to part with, please let me know). I sent out a final list to my committee and am really just waiting on one reply to know it is going to the faculty head for approval. I think the count is 19 books, 6 essays, 2 articles and selections from Principle of Hope. In September they will meet to set up my exam question, my director wants me to go off and read until then (after this semester of course) and come back with my notes from the readings. Then we'll start working to prep for the exam. I'm actually quite excited about it all and we are thinking that an exam date in October will work fine.