Ladies and gentlemen, from a chilly Cambridge attic bedroom, I wish you a good evening. My plan is to blog, quickly and quietly, before retiring to a still-considerably-cold bed. Tomorrow morning brings a mock exam for HAP – ‘Historical Argument and Practice’ – which is the seemingly obligatory part of any course where everything goes tediously meta, and questions run the gambit from “But, really, why?” to “So what?” and “Oh, right. Discuss.”. But never mind. If I really can’t think of anything to write, and bear in mind we have three hours to come up with a single answer, I might just resort to composing limericks or something. It’s a mock.
Much much much more fun is my actual paper this term, which is a continuation of the history of political thought from last year. This week is Hume, who is awesome, although I am slightly concerned that the rest of the term is going to be a downward spiral from this initial height. (It’s hard to improve on ‘no metaphysics’, since just writing it again but in a bigger, jazzier font is bound to be subject to diminishing returns. Maybe in <marquee>…*) Anyway! All this has lead to a grand moment of self-discovery tonight, wherein I realised that my answer of “I don’t know, I don’t have any plans…” to questions about the future is basically a lie. I do have plans – lots of plans! – only they’re based around reading rather than careering. So, here is my commitment: when I leave uni, I am going to make time to read (a) even more philosophy, (b) Very Short Introductions to sciencey things and (c) great fiction. Inbetween, if I have time, I might get a job. How’s that? 
(If only I could read on trains, my life would be pretty much complete!)
*Note to self: It’s probably best not to write jokes which combine both philosophy and HTML, since the potential target audience reading this blog is basically Alex Trafford. And maybe Bill Thompson.
> It’s probably best not to write jokes which combine both philosophy and HTML…
I don’t know Dom, I’d say they’re going pretty well so far! Oh and pish posh, metaphysics *can* be interesting…at least until someone invokes God
Funnily enough, my Grand Plan for Future Reading Endeavours™ features almost entirely the same line up as yours. I currently have an ever-growing stack of Very Short Introductions to read. In a similar vain, Penguin ‘Great Ideas’ are also wonderful, although not strictly comparable in some ways. But yes. Lots of reading.
I feel somewhat saddened but the idea of not being able to read on trains (although I do imagine you enjoying much more pretty scenery – or people-watching in TfL circumstances – than I’d usually manage). Same with cars, I assume? You could always try audiobooks – I can’t say I like them for everything, but they can be dreadfully useful with certain things.
Oh, I’d say get a job at the Guardian reviewing books until you’ve satiated your short-term desire for reading, then graduate to a Wikipedia administrator whilst you finish off a longer-term list. Or maybe that’s just based on a desire for web-based power…