Geek-ish Pleasures

It is officially summer (as in, classes are done and grades are in) so that means I'm sticking my toes back into research. The top priority really has to be the conference paper (which will also be part of the new book's conclusion) and as I have nothing written, I started looking for research materials yesterday. Initially, I was searching for articles to order on interlibrary loan, but then I discovered the marvels of google books. They have an inconsistent run of Photoplay, Moving Picture World, Motion Picture Classic and other periodicals from the 1910s--which made me super-excited. I also found some reform and social science serials and small books/pamphlets from the same period (many of them works I had out of the library for most of my dissertation writing years), which will be handy for book revisions--especially as I forgot them entirely in the subsequent years and could use them for small tweaks to various chapters.

By the end of the day, I was squealing with joy as I added these (free) titles to my google library. I never thought I'd own whole volumes of Moving Picture World from 1916 or Photoplay from 1915. I was planning to get an iPad 2 anyway for work (easier to carry to conferences and school for Powerpoint presentations), and now I can read these books on it, it will be even more useful. Sometimes I forget how much the 1910s thrill me, but just looking at these covers, their distinctive and dated use of English (replete with excessive use of hypenation and terms like motography, photoplay--or photo-play, kinematography) makes me very happy--in a very geek-like way.