Technically, I don’t have a lot of perks with this job, but one I am thrilled about is the opportunity to get books. A co-worker stopped in my office to chat this morning and mentioned he had some books I could have. He’s the book monitor for his department, and since I’m an honorary member of that department, he checked the books out to me (we have to account for who gets them, but we don’t have to return them — the joy of a faculty position).

I logged them into my “temporary” LibraryThing account. I created the account by accident a while ago and then realized it would be a handy way to get my work books to my home account easily. I enter them at the office by ISBN, view the temporary account from my home account, and add the books to my home account. Then, when I go back to work, I delete those books and wait until I get more.

These books are either classroom texts our students need to read all or portions of or books we use to supplement our knowledge for the classroom.  Today’s haul?

1. Makers of Modern Strategy from Machiavelli to the Nuclear Age
2. Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis (2nd Edition)
3. Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare: The Evolution of British and American Ideas about Strategic Bombing, 1914-1945
4. Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
5. Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
6. 100 Years of Air Power & Aviation (Centennial of Flight Series, No. 5)
7. Over Lord: General Pete Quesada and the Triumph of Tactical Air Power in World War II
8. Type Talk: The 16 Personality Types That Determine How We Live, Love, and Work
9. The Prince (Oxford World’s Classics)
10. The Bridges at Toko-Ri
11. The Machine That Changed the World : The Story of Lean Production

I culled our research and critical thinking lesson plans this morning and submitted my request for those books and a couple others.  I hope to get them in a few days, assuming we have them in stock.

Of course, I learned about The Sociopath Next Door and Inside the Mind of Scott Peterson by reading Allison’s post today over at Murder She Writes.  These are perfect research tools for the villains I want to write.  They went into my cart immediately.  Of course, they’re jumbled in with A Polar Bear’s Journey, a kindergarten to grade 4 book.  Anybody seeing that might wonder who the sociopath might be.

Sadly, the children’s book is the outlier.  My cart also contains Night Echoes, Night Lost, No Good Deeds, and Kiss Her Goodbye.   What’s in your “cart?”