Posted by Ed
In theory, I realize, I'm in the midst of a break from blogging. Even so, little things sometimes succeed in drawing me back.
One of my missions in life, you see, is to become sufficiently established that publishers send me free books to read. I took a break from blogging a little while ago, and then, low and behold, I got an email from a publisher the other day, offering me a review copy of a new book! (I've written about the professor's past work here.) Could blogging really be the road to riches, or at least to free books? For an academic, that's a big inducement to put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard). Blogging has already brought me into contact with three writers whose work I've enjoyed for a long time, which is another nice inducement to keep going...
Second, I've had a very frustrating week in the provincial party archives in Saratov. Part of the issue has been that the archive was closed three days this week--two days for International Women's Day, and once for reasons that are unknown to me. (Frequent archive closings are part of what makes research in Russia so much fun!) Part of the issue has to do with a request for access that I've made, and whose resolution I'm still waiting on. (I'd rather not go into detail here.) In any case, I ended up spending some time on the web today, as a means of dealing with my frustration, and came up with the following fun links: