I've spent the last fifteen minutes trailing randomly through other blogs. That little "next blog" button at the top of the page is so tempting - it opens a window into another world for a moment. Some blogs are written as typical diaries, others are random thoughts piled together, sometimes in verse, others are picture scrapbooks or political commentaries or high-tech newsletters. Almost half of them are in other languages; some look made up. I wonder if anyone accidentally lands on my blog. Do they stay and read a sentence or two? It's very rare that I stay for more than a few minutes.

Did you know Rosie O'Donnell has a blog on eBlogger?

We started Little Dorrit today. I never enjoy beginning a Dickens novel as much as other Victorian writers. I think it's because it requires so much of your attention to keep track of who's speaking, who is linked to whom, and generally what is going on. Ironically, Bleak House started on the BBC tonight, so that's two Dickens novels started in one day. I wonder why they've decided to show it like a soap opera, with two half-hour segments each week... Perhaps because it mirrors the serialization of the original novel.

I feel as though all we have been doing for four weeks is reading. Part of me can't believe that this Master's programme has so many similarities to a book club! I know the essays will begin soon, and I have mixed feelings about them. Part of me is looking forward to getting stuck into the "real" work and making some progress on the course, and the other half of me is nervous, as usual, about the outcome. It's the dissertation I'm really looking forward to. I loved getting so absorbed by a topic with my undergrad thesis. I hope this one is so successful. I'll have to rein myself in a bit, though. I've got a 20,000 word limit. My thesis was 38,000...

I sometimes wonder who I'm talking to...

So I've been trying to think about what I might write about for each of the modules. The Making Progress module will be by far the easiest, since Victorian literature is something I've much more experience with. I'm thinking about the image of the web: the interdependence of individuals and the relationship between individual and group (society). But perhaps far more likely is a gender-based study, perhaps investigating power dynamics in North & South. The transatlantic class is more tricky. I had thought about doing something with patriotism or modernism v. Americanism, but I'm not sure quite what to go on. And all I could think in today's seminar was that the link Bob was trying to make between Top Hat and Orwell's Coming Up For Air was no sturdier than frayed thread.

And all the while I can't help wondering whether the seminars we had with Anne Wallace weren't more... in depth? Is that what I mean? I can feel that I have grown, critically speaking and perhaps analytically too, since then, but there are times step back from the discussion and feel that there is something missing; that we're not going quite far enough. I have a feeling that Anne would have pushed us further. She always seemed to be trying to lead us somewhere, but not in the explicit way that John uses ("I'm looking for a word that means..."); she would talk around the point until suddenly the idea would burst upon you as if it were your own. Perhaps it's just a difference in teaching styles all mixed up with my own respect for Anne. I think that, when it comes to graduate study, a lot of the progress you make has to be mapped out on your own.

Anne Fadiman has been signing and reading from her new book on the east coast - Boston Public Library and New York. I do so wish I could go. She's the resident writer at Yale at the moment. Can you imagine being so successful (without even a graduate degree, mind you) that you are invited to be the resident writer at Yale? She has a life I could only dream about. And I respect her for it. Every time I pick up Ex Libris I feel that warm, excited feeling of self-justification and connection. The new book's called Rereadings; she's the editor and it focuses on authors' memories and associations with pivotal books in their reading and writing careers. It's not out here yet, but I think I might have to give in and order it from Amazon. Unfortunately my Amazon wish list seems to procreate at a much more impressive rate than my bookshelves.

Speaking of books, I'm so glad we put the bookshelves in the living room. I might have mentioned that before. It's such an inspiration. Each little collection of pages, bound up between cardboard covers, is a little world waiting to be stepped into. When I stare at the shelves I feel like Alice in a room full of mirrors. Only there are so many mirrors I haven't even stepped foot through. I try to look on that in a positive way: look how many worlds are still waiting to be explored.

So the DVD set I bought from eBay arrived. As I suspected, it's an illegal copy. I'm so angry. I put it in the player just to see whether it was even a copy of the set (I suppose I shouldn't have done that, but I feel better about it because I had no intention of actually watching them) and they are not even genuine copies (if that's not a negation in terms); they were copied from the NBC shows. The quality is terrible and the sound isn't even in sync with the picture. Anyway, I've written to the guy to demand a refund and I've reported it to eBay. But the guy sold over 80 copies of this.

Don't I sound like such a preacher? It's not that I'm such a saint; I just feel ripped off.

This is getting too long...