It's the end of the summer, when you move to another place.

Oh, for goodness' sake. It's been a long time since I wrote anything. I'll try to make this post worth your while.

Yesterday I was listening, predictably, to Dar Williams' album The End of the Summer (from which title track my post title comes). If and when I ever leave the cycle of academic years and summer jobs, I think I'll feel off-kilter. August has always been a time of upheaval and moving and breaking off, and 2006 is no exception.

I finished my second summer at the Newberry last week, which completely flew by. A definite highlight was being called a "born cataloger" by one of the higher-ups in Special Collections. Not that I necessarily want to be a cataloger, but my library-nerd reflexes responded nonetheless.

And now I'm off to Boston this weekend. To be honest, I was feeling more nervous than anything up till this week, but now I'm getting excited. About library school, living near college friends, and plunging right in to a new phase. I've got two job interviews next week, too, so hopefully I'll be writing about one of those two libraries in future.

The last book I finished (and it may be the last pleasure-reading book I finish in a long time, despite my purchase of Fiasco earlier this week) was White Teeth by Zadie Smith. It was just excellent: ambitious, funny, thoroughly enjoyable. At times, I was reminded of Tom Robbins, but for the most part, I was just carried away by the way the book's..."themes," I guess, gracefully coincided and surfaced, instead of hitting me on the head or making me roll my eyes. And she was twenty or so when she wrote it. A co-worker and I discussed how we were happy that such talented people exist, but we're a little sad we're not those people. Since I've graduated from college, I've had a really great run of reading. I've knocked some big ones off my list: The Changing Light at Sandover, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Alphabet vs. the Goddess, House of Leaves, In Cold Blood.

One more thing. Yesterday as I was surfing around the radio I heard a song with the refrain "In Boston, no one knows my name." (An interesting variation on the Cheers theme.) It was another one of those coincidental (but not really) radio moments. And while there are certainly people in Boston who know my name, I was reminded that here is another nice obvious opportunity to try to make myself better. I hope I will.