{"id":5379,"date":"2014-01-18T09:43:57","date_gmt":"2014-01-18T09:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=5379"},"modified":"2014-01-18T09:43:57","modified_gmt":"2014-01-18T09:43:57","slug":"my-week-in-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2014\/01\/18\/my-week-in-books\/","title":{"rendered":"My week in books and postcards"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It began with my reading the New Scientist's '<em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.newscientist.com\/article\/dn24442-nothing--the-new-book-from-new-scientist.html#.UsaSPv1LomE\">Nothing<\/a><\/em>', a book that brings together the writings of more than 20 New Scientist writers around themes that have the idea of nothing at their heart. \u00a0Topics included: t<span style=\"color: #000080\">he history of zero, the number; absolute zero, the temperature; the near-vacuum; zero gravity celestial pathways; the placebo effect; being idle for a purpose; (un)consciousness; the point of day-dreaming; the Big Bang and the end of it all<\/span>; and more ... .<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"attachment wp-att-5382\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2014\/01\/18\/my-week-in-books\/dn24442-2_300-3\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-5382\" src=\"http:\/\/bathblogs.wpengine.com\/edswahs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2014\/01\/dn24442-2_3002-195x300.jpg\" alt=\"dn24442-2_300\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2014\/01\/dn24442-2_3002-195x300.jpg 195w, https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2014\/01\/dn24442-2_3002.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/a>If you think that all this sounds a mishmash, you'd be wrong as the book is cleverly arranged in both themes and pathways. \u00a0 For example, you can read from start to finish (or finish to start, if you like), working through the 6 \u00a0themes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000080\"><em>beginnings, mysteries, making sense of it all, surprises, voyages of discovery, <\/em><em>conclusions<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Or you can follow an idea through the themes, for example by<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080\">starting at p. 16 with <em>the secret life of the brain,<\/em><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080\">going to p. 65 and <em>wastes of space<\/em>,<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080\">then to p. 93, with b<em>usy doing nothing<\/em>, and<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000080\">finally to <em>putting the idle to work<\/em> on p. 183. <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It strikes me that this combination of paths and themes might be used more frequently in providing structure for readers. \u00a0I learned a lot, and was held by good writing, so well done\u00a0New Scientist for showing that there's more to nothing than you might at first think.<\/p>\n<p>It ended, on the Friday evening, with the launch of a great book:\u00a0<em>Research Journeys: a collection of narratives of the doctoral experience<\/em>, edited and written by real doctoral students from Bath. \u00a0The\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/nq2gqqt\">publishers<\/a> say:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000080\">\"The aim of this book is to provide prospective and current doctoral students, and their supervisors, with a range of narratives of doctoral experiences. \u00a0The book is an outcome of a conference where both academic and professional doctorate students at different stages of their research shared their experiences of the process of completing a doctorate. \u00a0The ten candid accounts included in the volume provide a valuable insight into the kinds of challenges that arise and the ways in which these might (or might not) be overcome. \u00a0In so doing, this book \u2018lifts the lid\u2019 on some of the hitherto concealed aspects of the doctoral process. \u00a0The book also includes a chapter from an established academic with a record of writing about the doctoral student experience, as well as inserts from a doctoral programme leader and an experienced academic supervisor. \u00a0In the Introduction, the editors review some of the current literature on experiences of the doctoral research journey and the research process. \u00a0The book concludes with the editors\u2019 reflections on both the unique nature of doctoral research for each individual and the common stages that students experience on the journey.\"<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There was a good turnout with students, staff and some senior university folk pitching up, for standard issue canap\u00e9s and wine, but for incisive comments, from book editors and contributors. \u00a0A pity, though, about the WiFi un-connections. \u00a0All told, a must read, I'd say, if you're a graduate student embarking on an EdD \/ PhD \/ DPhil. \u00a0I'm looking forward to the next book \u2013 this time about the supervisor experience; the hardest thing an academic does.<\/p>\n<p>In between times, there was time for \u00a0a trip to the new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.english-heritage.org.uk\/daysout\/properties\/stonehenge\/?gclid=COuKm8-xh7wCFY3LtAodbWYA_w\">Stonehenge visitor centre<\/a>. \u00a0The Centre, much loved by critics, fares less well with consumers, we are told. \u00a0Too much queuing \u2013 indeed, too many queues to get to the queues for the too small and too slow road trains to reach the stones. \u00a0Not everyone, it seems, is interested in the rather wonderful museum where we spent nearly all our time, not going to the stones at all. \u00a0I suspect that English Heritage may have assumed that too many would be. \u00a0It seems clear that visitors who are littering Trip Advisor with adverse comments cannot have spend enough time in that emporium of delights which is the shop.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-5511\" src=\"http:\/\/bathblogs.wpengine.com\/edswahs\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/65\/2014\/01\/images-21-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"images-2\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/>There is surely everything here you could wish for; there are even books, though these are hard to find as you meander through the mead, mugs,\u00a0mouse mats, scarves, engravings,\u00a0necklaces, tea towels, scarves, hats, fridge magnets,\u00a0tee shirts, wooly jumpers, scones, pencils, pens, postcards, pictures, paintings, photographs, wine, blankets, beer, broaches, \u00a0\u2013 all of which is now part of the requisite National Heritage experience. \u00a0I nearly bought this postcard of a pre-English Heritage scene when the A303 looked like a track and there was a sign saying \"Fork Left for Exeter\" in front of what looked like a road-side cafe \u00a0with the stones in the background and an old bone-shaker car trundling down the hill.<\/p>\n<p>Time, too, for a bit of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/uk-england-wiltshire-25687609\">ganderflanking<\/a>. \u00a0The weather was kind, the ground not too sodden, and the air, if not quite balmy, well, it wastn't arctic chill either. Mind you, our conversation was probably more purposeful than the notion of ganderflanking suggests, if wiltshire dialect\u00a0<span style=\"color: #0000ee\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">glossaries<\/span><\/span> are be relied on. \u00a0And, finally, time to see the first primroses, once again on that sunny bank in Winsley. \u00a0Where, I wonder, are the snowdrops?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It began with my reading the New Scientist's 'Nothing', a book that brings together the writings of more than 20 New Scientist writers around themes that have the idea of nothing at their heart. \u00a0Topics included: the history of zero,...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-new-publications","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}