My Desk, R216
This is my desk in Reveal 216.
As far as desks go, it’s not the greatest: what little space it has can hardly be reached, and it’s confined between a dresser and a bunk. But I like my desk, because it’s the place where I’ve done almost all my graduate work. I like the shelves right above the desk, where I can see the most important books all the time. On the bottom left I keep all my reference books: textbooks my dictionaries, two Greek lexicons, and Turabian. On the bottom right I keep all the books I am or should be reading now: textbooks and books for papers and projects. On the top shelf I keep the books I am reading or will read whenever I can: the Durants’ The Story of Civilization, Morison’s Oxford History of the American People, and Schama’s A History of Britain. Also on the top shelf are my parents; Abby is just out of sight to the left.
It’s not much of a desk, but I become attached to the places where I work—first the debate room, then the Vintage office, next my carrel in the library, and now my desk in R216. I wonder which work place is next.
Posted 29 Apr. 2008 at 12:12 am | Permalink
[...] Ode to a desk by a graduating student blogger. [The Backward Glance] [...]
Posted 29 Apr. 2008 at 11:08 am | Permalink
Do you really keep it that neat? My desk looks more like this. You shouldn’t take that to imply that there’s a correlation with intellectual achievement, though. :-)
Posted 29 Apr. 2008 at 11:15 am | Permalink
Not quite as neat as in the photo, but close. I’ve been self-improving in preparation for marriage. :-)
The shelves are usually that neat, but the desk usually has cables and a couple of books or papers scattered about. And what you don’t see is the top of the dresser, which holds a bin of paperwork and all the books checked out of the library or in use for Sunday school. I’ll let my current and former roommates offer their own judgment.
For proof that clutter does not necessarily produce right thinking, see this photo. :-)
Posted 29 Apr. 2008 at 9:27 pm | Permalink
This post reminds me of your carrel in the Mack Library Reading Room. When I inherited it from you while writing my HR & Writing paper I found my thoughts particularly clear, especially when researching Puritanism.
Posted 29 Apr. 2008 at 9:48 pm | Permalink
I have fond memories of that carrel. I still sit there whenever I go to the library.
It’s only fault was that a couple of nights each semester the periodicals room would be swarmed with frantic freshmen scraping together enough sources for their paper due the next morning.
Posted 13 May. 2008 at 11:18 am | Permalink
Hey…that’s my biography of Roosevelt. I only gave you a half share in it, not nearly enough to have it featured on your website.