I'm tired of reading articles; I want to get back into textbooks.

I miss the comprehensiveness of school. They pick a topic, like let's say "American Modernism," and then they nail it. Over 10-16 weeks you experience all the authors, music, films, histories and perspectives of that topic. The course is then capped with an essay-writing assignment to complete the learning process.

In a way, school was a weapon against memetic-calcification. In memetic-calcification, memes languish for too long in your head, something that too easily happens post-college. After school, you only click and read whatever's convenient. You remain glued to your favorite TV channels and magazines. Even your "educational" sources, like the History Channel or The New Yorker, are snippets and summaries contributing to mere cocktail party wit.

I miss learning things that I never initially wanted. Maybe I should segment my year into quarters and follow college syllabi. Replace all the time spent surfing TV or the Internet or whatever intellectual vice--we all have one--with a focus on this quarter's reading.

Seriously, all the hundreds of essays I've read on Kerry v. Bush are useless compared to rich historical perspective:

The libertarian writer Lew Rockwell has mischievously noted parallels between Bush and Russia’s last tsar, Nicholas II: both gained office as a result of family connections, both initiated an unnecessary war that shattered their countries’ budgets. Lenin needed the calamitous reign of Nicholas II to create an opening for the Bolsheviks. (from The American Conservative endorses Kerry)