Okay- I'm a little less tired than yesterday morning, so we're going to call that progress.

First chance find on the Widener hold shelf (the hold expired on Friday, so they say all the time on the Simpsons, "Yoink!"):

AMC White Mountain guide : hiking trails in the White Mountain National Forest / compiled and edited by Gene Daniell and Jon Burroughs.
Edition : 26th ed.
Published : Boston, Mass. : Appalachian Mountain Club Books ; Old Saybrook, CT : Distributed by Globe Pequot Press, 1998.

I own an older edition of this book, a dogeared copy which has definitely seen action on the slopes of the Presidential Mountains and probably still smells faintly of bug spray and pine needles. I just loved the fold-out maps that came with the book, and was delighted to see that the new edition contains larger, more detailed topological maps of the myriad hiking trails to be found in New Hampshire's - and partly Maine's as well- White Mountain National Forest.

Chance finds used to be how I decided what I'd read next when I was working at the Circulation Desk at the Dewey Library at MIT. Not only was the subject matter of that library itself interesting (the social sciences), but as MIT allowed you to return books you checked out from any of its branch libaries to any of its branch libraries, there was a steady stream of humanities fare en route back to general circulation to choose from as well.

The only downer here at Widener is that we don't handle returns, by and large, as there's a separate desk for that (there's a separate desk for everything here!). But that doesn't mean I can't watch that hold shelf like a hawk...

But it'll be fun to paw through the oversized glossy color maps. Aside from my recent near-death experience atop Stratton Mountain in Vermont, I don't think I'll be doing any hiking for the rest of this season, but it's always fun to plan for the next year! By the little Andriana should be ready to ride shotgun in one of those child-carrier backpacks. I can't wait!