This morning I canceled our order with Baker and Taylor for the books that our accounting professor is eager to get, because B&T doesn't have any copies in their warehouse and the publisher claims they can get the books to us in a week. I would have ordered direct in the first place except that the books are paperback and Baker and Taylor would have bound them for us. I also put in orders for a couple of periodicals--Technical Services Quarterly for our database guy and Faith and Philosophy for the Religion department (my idea, not theirs, and the money comes from our periodicals budget, not the depleted departmental fund). Guess what I did in the afternoon? Yes, I read Choice. Are you interested in what books I have lately chosen to purchase on my own recognizance? Whether you are or not, here are some of them.

Stanley Fish, How Milton Works and Surprised by Sin. I figured that a Baptist university could use some books by a literary critic who takes Milton seriously as a single-minded Christian and not, per the Romantics (following that fruitcake Blake), as one who secretly harbored sympathies with the devil.

Mark Noll, America's God. It wasn't difficult to decide that an account of American Protestantism by one of the top religious historians is appropriate for our collection.

It Has to Be Beautiful. I forgot the editor, but this collection of essays describing various famous equations of physical science got rave reviews from almost every source I consulted.

Davies, God's Playground. The only general history of Poland our library holds was published a century ago, so this highly regarded two volume work from the 1970s will fill a gap in our collection.

I'll describe other recent purchases later.

This evening I went to the introductory session for the literacy volunteers. There were only four of us: a young woman whose husband was sent overseas with the military, two retired persons, and me. We watched a video demonstrating the teaching technique, and boy does it seem tedious, but I suppose that it is a good cause.

My mother sent me a recipe for "the perfect martini." What are mothers for? Right now I've gotten to the point where I just coat the glass with vermouth and then fill it with Tanqueray. Good stuff, but I've had gin every day for the past two weeks so I need to make a booze run to Lubbock for something different; I'm thinking Amaretto. (Which a Notre Dame friend chided me for drinking as being a "woman's drink.")

I haven't been using my Netflix privilege too much lately, because I've been occupied watching the first two seasons of the Simpsons on DVD (a birthday gift). However, I did just finish Scandal, a well-done period piece based on the true story of a 1960s English showgirl who had affairs with a defense minister and a Russian spy. Ian McKeller, younger and less hairy than in The Lord of the Rings, played the defense minister. I also spotted the lead singer of the Fine Young Cannibals as a member of the Jamaican community in London, and Bridget Fonda as the showgirl's best friend. Grade: B+ to A-