Look what I’m bringing home from Boston. The two books on either end I got from the used bookstore, and the one in the middle, Medieval Christianity: A New History, was a gift from Carrie Bradley, a reader of this here blog who came to hear me talk at Boston College tonight. Carrie was the research assistant on the book; the stunning image on the cover is a detail from a window at the Chartres Cathedral.

It is becoming very, very easy for me to lose myself in the world of the Middle Ages. I’m starting to think it’s a damn shame that William of Ockham didn’t fall down a well or something before he caused all that trouble.

I had a really good time at BC. I got to meet several longtime readers of this blog, and the audience asked really good questions. But you know what? It is freaking cold in this city. Get this: there’s still unmelted snow on a sports field near the BC campus. I cannot imagine how these poor Bostonians lived through this past winter, given these narrow, London-like downtown streets.

One thing I love about Bostonians: when you praise their oysters, they agree with you that nobody grows ’em better. It ain’t braggin’ when you can do it.