I've been good so far about self-motivation. I have a fairly large number of places to see in a fairly short period of time, and so I've laid out a whole plan of what sites to get to on what days. And, in between touring, I've left myself time to sit and write, as well as to read the sizable collection of pamphlets and museum catalogs I'm collecting along the way. Such catalogs are important, since they're filled with the kinds of site specific information that I'm not going to be able to find on Amazon when I get back home. I have bought books like: A Guide to the Collections of Prague Castle Gallery and The Exhibition Guide to the History of the Jews in Bohemia and Moravia. Such things, with their colorful photographs will serve me well when I get home and I can't figure out what the hell that 15-second sketch I drew from the inside of Tyn church is supposed to be portraying.

But the most self-disciplined of us waver. I have been here a week now, and the Little Engine that Could was getting tired. I left my hotel yesterday morning with a full agenda, but some three blocks away I passed an English book store. I tried to walk by, I really did, but I just couldn't help myself. Before I knew what I was doing, I had bought four quick read books: Confess, Fletch, a James Bond book, a sci-fi book by Terry Pratchet, and a Bridget Jones type book written, oddly enough, by a Korean woman who owns a candy store about a mile from where I live.

I spent the rest of the day, that evening, and all of this morning, curled up in a chair. I have finished the first three books.

I am rejuvenated. I am infinitely happier. It was just what I needed to get me back on track this afternoon, which I spent walking around the streets where Tycho and Kepler lived, and then going to the beautiful Sternberg Palace which houses a collection of European paintings from 1400 to 1800 (including some by Durer, Rubens, El Greco, Jan and Pieter Brueghel) that are quite stunning. Of course, I bought the exhibition guide.

Which I will read as soon as I finish my fourth book. . .