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April 8, 2007

What Are You Reading?

In the hopes of starting a mini-meme, I'm pointing to Girish's recent post, which asks a very simple question: What are you reading? When I first moved to Fayetteville, I made some effort to participate in Dr. Crazy's Reading for Pleasure Wednesdays, but then the fall semester started and I wasn't really reading enough to participate consistently. But I like the idea of doing a reading post every few weeks or months to get suggestions from other bloggers about what I should be reading.

Like Girish, I sometimes spend several weeks or months working on a book, picking it, starting it, and returning to it weeks or even months later. Also, when I lived in DC, I would read on the subway or while waiting for a movie to start. In Fayetteville, I rarely find myself in situations where I have to wait, and so my time for pleasure reading has diminished somewhat. The good news is that because I've been traveling quite a bit lately, I've had a little more time to read than usual, so here a few of the books I'm reading. And, if you feel so inclined, feel free to offer suggestions here in the comments or over at Girish's place (or create your own post).

At any rate, for whatever reason, I've been in the mood for non-fiction lately. This is partially due to the fact that I'm planning to teach a senior-level course on autobiography in the fall, and I may include a couple of memoirs in the reading list (of course, this is really just an excuse to feed my compulsion to collect and buy a bunch of books). So I'm either reading or planning to read the following:

Memoir: Mary Karr, The Liars' Club; Allen Shawn, Wish I Could Be There: Notes on a Phobic Life; and Hugo Hamilton, The Speckled People. On the way from Amazon: Colby Buzzell, My War: Killing Time in Iraq (after seeing Operation Homecoming).

Other non-fiction: Craig Seligman, Sontag & Kael; Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City; and Chris Hedges, American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. Planning to read: Ross Melnick and Andreas Fuchs, Cinema Treasures: A New Look at Classic Movie Theaters.

Fiction: I came across Max Barry's latest, Company, and may try to read that (in part because I thought Jennifer Government was incredibly funny), and I'm also planning to read Dana Spiotta's Eat the Document.

Update: At the suggestion of several cool people, including the folks at >> mind the__GAP*, I've been reading some of Bruno Latour's recent work on the politics of things, including his Introduction to Making things Public and Reassembling the Social.

Posted by chuck at April 8, 2007 10:44 PM

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Comments

Chuck, nice idea about the meme! I haven't read any of the titles on your list although I've browsed the Sontag/Kael book at the store. I'm curious about your upcoming course on autobiography. Is there a certain period you'll be focusing on, or will it do a historical survey of sorts? And just wondering: what are some of the books you might be using?

Posted by: girish at April 9, 2007 7:20 AM

Haven't started the Sontag/Kael book, but I have a couple of upcoming plane trips that might allow me to dive into it. I'm interested in criticism and the public sphere, and of course Kael and Sontag were a big part of that at a certain moment.

The autobiography course is an extension/revision of my "home movies" course from Fall 2005. I may focus solely on autobiographical cinema and video from the 1980s to the present. I'd like to do Marlon Riggs' Tongues Untied and maybe Su Friedrich's Sink or Swim and work my way through contemporary twists on autobiography (Tarnation, maybe) to videoblogging.

After seeing Operation Homecoming last week, I'm thinking of adding a discussion of that film and requiring students to read Jarhead (or something similar).

Posted by: Chuck at April 9, 2007 9:10 AM

Hat's off to you, Chuck. It's all I can do to keep up with the readings I've assigned for my classes and a smattering of online articles and blogs. If I'm really lucky, I can actually chip away at some primary and secondary research for my work. Several years worth of un- and under-read books are stacked up in my office. Such is the price I (and my spouse) pay for parenthood!

So, considering that most of my pleasures (intellectual and otherwise) are of the "meta" variety, I look forward to your reviews! And the same goes with films, for that matter; we're able to score a night out about three times a year, and can only manage a new DVD about twice a month.

So, I'll pick up the slack in oh, about 2017 or thereabouts. :)

See you at MIT5, BTW.

Posted by: Derek Kompare at April 9, 2007 10:33 AM

I think this post reflections ambition more than actual practice. I haven't read a page of this "pleasure reading" material in two or three weeks. Teaching freshman comp does leave me a little room to have shorter reading assignments, which may help a little. Being single (and not a parent) also leaves me a little more spare time.

But most of the books I just described are stacked next to my laptop waiting for me to read more than the first 10-20 pages.

Looking forward to MIT5. Frantically chipping away at the readings for that paper now.

Posted by: Chuck at April 9, 2007 10:47 AM

Dear Chuck,

Thank you for putting "Cinema Treasures" on your reading list. Please let us know what you think. I read "Devil in the White City" and it certainly is thrilling, to say the least. Someone opted the film rights, but I doubt it will ever happen. As for the Chicago World's Fair, check out "EXPO - Magic of the White City" narrated by Gene Wilder. You may also want to have a photo book ready while reading "Devil." The descriptions of the sights and sounds are so vivid that you just have to see them.

Best, Andreas. (co-author, "Cinema Treasures - A New Look at Classic Movie Theatres" -- http://cinematreasures.org/book/buy.php)

Posted by: Andreas Fuchs at April 10, 2007 11:46 AM

Hi Andreas, looking forward to reading it. If I'm not mistaken, it's on its way from Amazon now.

Posted by: Chuck at April 10, 2007 10:36 PM

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