What am I do-do-doodling now?

This morning I finally put away all the books cluttering up my desk and when I got to the bottom of the pile, I found Doodling for Academics: A Coloring and Activity Book by Julie Schumacher, with illustrations by Lauren Nassef. Schumacher, as you will recall, wrote Dear Committee Members, a novel composed entirely of letters of recommendation from a harried English professor, which is hysterically funny when it's not tragic, displaying a sharp eye for the more ridiculous elements of academic life. 

Doodling for Academics was a Christmas gift from my son, who knows me really well, obviously. On Christmas day the book circulated amongst the academics in the crowd, who took turns chortling in bitter recognition over pages illustrating, for instance, officemate hobbies (like amateur kombucha brewing and bad taxidermy) and souvenirs of academic conferences (don't we all need a T-shirt that says "Fungal Genetics and You"?). 

Especially apposite over Christmas break was the "Cheering Section" page, featuring family members' responses to academic careers: "That must be nice, working only a few hours a day" or "Aunt Mary says that a monkey with a computer could...." Other pages invite readers to "Circle the items in the department refrigerator that most closely resemble lunch" or "Color the new football stadium subsidized at the expense of the library."

A page titled "Tidying Up" asks "Which office objects spark joy?" Among the objects are a dropping plant, a pile of dried-out highlighters, a file folder full of rejection letters, and a slide carousel collection, but the object in my office that sparks the most joy right now is my copy of Doodling for Academics. Now I just need someone to bring me some crayons so we can doodle together.