Modern Cabinetmaking

I have nearly always gone to school, but for the past several years I've rather lost my sense of direction with respect to educational goals. Recently, though, I was browsing through a catalogue for a local community college and discovered a cabinetmaking degree. I've gotten rather burned out on nursing--not enough to give it up entirely, but certainly to have doubts about working many shifts at the bedside once I'm past 62! But I'm also a bit of a workaholic; that is, I definitely need to feel like I'm doing something constructive. A career in cabinetmaking seemed to fit the bill, so I've registered for two night courses (out of 17 required) so that by the time I'm ready to retire, I'll have Plan B in place! For both courses the recommended text is Umstattd and Davis's Modern Cabinetmaking. It's a beautiful, well written, and thorough book on the cabinetmaker's craft, and covers everything from design, drafting, forestry and milling principles, wood types, non-wood products (glass, plastic, ceramic), hardware, processing wood for products, discussions of tools and techniques, finishes, and furniture design, to the employment opportunities available in cabinetmaking. It's such an exciting and informative volume, that I got almost 1/3 of the way through the 854 pages of the book within a couple of days before my classes even began. Tonight it's Basic Woodworking Fundamentals, tomorrow it's POWER TOOLS!!! (Boy, if anyone had told me when I was a little girl I'd be this excited about a trip to the hardware store, I'd have thought they were crazy.)