The dentist's office

I finally got my cracked tooth crowned (band name: cracked tooth crowned) yesterday. My gums are a bit torn up, but other than that, I'm very happy to be able to chew on my left side. Hooray for dental insurance.

The appointment takes about an hour and a half and for about twenty minutes of that I'm just sitting there without hands in my mouth and with nothing to do. So, since this is my third crown, I know to bring a book. I brought Surviving Your Academic Job Hunt, by Kathryn Hume. If you've not read it, it's an intense and often terrifying book -- but also incredibly helpful. There's very concrete advice (carry your briefcase in your left hand when you walk into an interview room so you don't have to shuffle it over when you shake hands) and lists and lists of possible interview questions. That's mostly what I was reading in the dentist's office.

One that I thought interesting was this: if you could only teach one book for the rest of your life, what would it be and why?

Now, that's too simplistic a question. It depends on what class I'm teaching. And no, that is NOT a cop-out. It really does. If I'm teaching Creative Nonfiction it'd be a very different class than if I was teaching comp theory. I imagine the question is geared toward literature types, but it's still an interesting one. For Creative Nonfiction, it'd either be A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius or Lying. But when we get into comp and rhetoric, I don't know how to answer that question. Also, can I use an anthology or collection? It's hard for me to imagine teaching an entire graduate seminar using only one book. I think the question also allowed for one author. That might be easier, but strange. I audited a class on Montaigne with Tom Newkirk, so it's clearly do-able. I mean, you could easily do a Berlin seminar, or one on Don Murray, or Peter Elbow, or David Bartholomae. I guess I've just never really imagined teaching a seminar in that way. It opens up new possibilities as I think about my "dream courses" list, but it's a new way of thinking for me.

PS. I keep getting distracted by what I keep thinking is the UPS truck delivering my copy of Harry Potter. Alas, dear readers, it isn't yet here. I'm basically doing a Scooby Doo drum my fingers together excited dance whenever I think about it arriving. Yep, I'm just that much of a dork.

PPS. I've decided I'm bad at labels for posts. I was looking at my label list and I'm just not very consistent. I'll try to do better.