When doing my Masters, I stumbled upon `Ph.D Grind, a Ph.D. student memoir', where Philip Guo, now a professor at UCSD, described his journey towards a PhD. The author shut down his website and the openly available pdf some time ago, but you can easily find the text on the internet. I read that hundred pages in one sitting, and it was breathtaking. Of course, the book was full of cautionary tales, but I was so fascinated by the world of academia that I did not take those seriously. And I still do not know if I should have.
`Ph.D Grind' has one major flaw, though. It is too short, and there are no more books like it. However, as Philip Guo said, his book is only a single data point. It is time for me to add one more. Welcome `DPhil Grind, a DPhil student memoir'!
This is still work in progress. I will be releasing it chapter by chapter. Chapter 2 is finished now.