i went to john o'brien's office hours today to say goodbye. he was not an easy person to get a book for - for though i like him very much i don't know him well at all - he'd taught me four years ago, when i was a first year, and he is incredibly nice, and very smart, although he's too shy and mild to let you know that until you've been in his class for a while. i haven't had a class with him since, but i think i'm always grateful to him for letting me in his class back then, and for what he had taught me. and in the three years since, whenever i ran into him on grounds, he always stopped for a few moment to ask what classes i'm taking, and that is awfully good of him. i probably didn't thank him well enough. it's hard to know what to say other than goodbye! i wish i knew him better or could find a book or some kind of gift more suited to him, but i guess not at this time. i brought cees nooteboom's the following story in the end. it's not a book that most people are likely to have read, it is certainly funny and quite unusual, and very importantly, it is short and therefore, as a gift book (which always carries with it a certain amount of obligation for the receiver) not overdemanding on anyone's time. i do hope he will like the book! heh. it would seem that everybody in the department who has read any nooteboom or have heard of him would have heard of him through me. maybe one day someone's going to teach a nooteboom class!