This morning I walked out of the bathroom after my shower and found AJ seated in the middle of a huge pile of library books reading out loud to himself. He had pulled out an action-packed, non-rhyming picture book called The Day Jimmy�s Boa Ate the Wash, which, as far as I know, he�s never seen before, and was reading quickly through it.

He�s been reading simpler books for a while, but when there�s someone around to read to him, he has apparently been feigning ignorance in order to enjoy the pleasure of being read to. He had us all fooled. It was fun to catch him in the act and I stood silently behind the door in order to hear. When he finally realized I was there, he jumped as if he�d been caught doing something illicit.

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I had another breakthrough with the diss yesterday. It�s kind of aggravating to keep finding all this new data. But this particular find is enabling me to prove conclusively a connection between one of the groups I�m working with and an ensemble in another country, which I had long suspected had been an influence. This particular find has the added bonus of being able to forge a direct link with the work of the only other scholar who�s done serious work on a related topic, thus strengthening my case immensely.

It�s interesting to watch your research unfold. In the beginning I felt rather like I was working in a vacuum. But with each passing day, I realize the various arms of study are stretching out towards other things, gradually creating a network, rather like reweaving a hole in a piece of fabric. Scholarship is an extremely solitary endeavor, so these moments of collision with other people�s works become important social interactions in a way. They feed the final product and keep it going.

The downside, of course, is that at some point, it becomes necessary to call a halt to all such interactions in order to write up your research. It seems to me that scientists are better trained to think about writing up interim results and taking them seriously (although this may be a fallacy on my part, as this assumption is based on a relatively limited association with scientists). Perhaps it�s because those of us in the humanities feel like we have to do more to justify the importance of our work and therefore overcompensate in areas of validity and completion. Then again, maybe it�s just me.

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