Woke up this morning and it was gray and gross outside. Ran into a friend on the way into town, so she gave me a ride the rest of the way. It started to rain. Stopped at Starbucks and resigned myself to the fact that when I finished my vanilla latte it was going to be another exceedingly dull day in the Minster Library. This was compounded when I got there and heard from the receptionist that one of the books I'd called up was superfragile and had all sorts of mold in it, so it would have to be looked at under the auspices of the conservation librarian if I wanted to look at it at all. Great. Day's just getting better and better.

Holy shit was I wrong!

I started my work taking notes on the appendix to a 1601 sermon that described the execution of the Earl of Essex the year previously, which was a nice break after spending 5.5 hours on Foxe's stuff yesterday. I noticed that the sun seemed to be coming out. Definitely a good thing, that. Dug into Vol II of Foxe again. My stomach started to growl REALLY loudly at about 1, so I popped out for lunch. Sun was shining brightly, and my tank top and light long-sleeved blouse were just perfect! I actually ate outside in the Minster gardens in the sunlight. I finished off Vol. II of Foxe.

And then I needed to move on to mold book.

So I went to find the librarian. One of the non-rare-book-conservation-librarians was found first, who explained the situation to me (again) and went to find the conservation librarian.

SWEETEST WOMAN EVER!! She was really excited about opening and unwrapping the book (when a book is moldy you isolate it, wrap it up, and keep it somewhere really dry - you can starve and kill off the mold that way). I asked her what sort of an education she had to get a job like hers, playing with old books all day like that - it really wasn't that different from mine, to be honest - a degree in English and Art History followed by a couple of other degrees in things having to do with rare books and the like - I could do that! AND she said that I could come play with the old books if I was really interested. I probably will. It's fascinating. I may just contact her right away. Like, tomorrow.

The book ended up being still too moldy and fragile for me to actually use right away, but that's all right - there's a copy in the University Library as well. I just figured I'd kill a few birds with one stone. But non-rare-book-conservation-librarian guy found me as I was packing up my stuff and asked how it had gone. I explained the situation, and for the next half hour was treated to a crash course on the intricacies of the electronic catalogue for the Minster library - sounds boring as all hell... and really, it was... but it was ridiculously USEFUL, and I came out of the Minster library with two secondary sources I wouldn't have found otherwise.

I just checked the temperature. 23 degrees. SCORE!

Walked home along the river with a Java Chip Frappuccino in hand. All is right with the world.

I Am Reading
Academically: Have finished with Foxe and will be moving on shortly. Probably to "Mercy and Authority in the Tudor State" (Kesselring), although I have a pile of 6 books waiting on my windowsill for me.
For Fun: JUST about finished Hudson. In fact, will finish tonight. Then I will move on. To what, though? Historical mystery? English classic? The possibilities are endles...well, there's 9 unread books on my shelf that have nothing to do with my dissertation...