A clash of worlds

One of the odd things about my professional day job is that our offices are on the 5th floor of a hotel. We rent the space, but it’s rather odd to walk into a hotel everyday and head for the elevators. It’s a business hotel, so there’s almost always one conference or another going on: earlier this week the Apple iPhone developers were in town for a technical conference.

I still managed to be surprised today when I hit the second floor and found myself face-to-face with a book sale that would make scholarly academic types drool. That’s right, the Sixteenth Century Society and Conference is in town…

The Sixteenth Century Society and Conference (SCSC) is a scholarly society that is interested in the early modern era (ca. 1450-ca. 1660). Its geographical scope is as worldwide as its membership. The society welcomes scholars from all disciplines who have an interest in early modern studies. SCSC holds one annual meeting a year with approximately 140 sessions for papers. This annual meeting preferably and traditionally takes place on the last full weekend of October.

As there were tables and tables of academic publishers with stacks of religion books at somewhat reduced rates, I may have to excuse myself for an extended lunch today…