Books read in 2006

Posted on by

I know I have questioned the value of these lists in the past, but remember that often questioning is a means to learning.

Now my list is going to be pathetic compared to many others because I mostly read articles, but here it is nonetheless:

The Riddle of Gender: Science, Activism, and Transgender Rights – Deborah Rudacille [blog post] [OWC]

Information, Knowledge, Text – Julian Warner. Scarecrow Press, 2001 — not very good. Sloppy typography. [OWC]

An Introduction to Book History – David Finkelstein and Alistair McCleery. Routledge, 2005 — pretty good, but a bit British-centric. [OWC]

To the Lighthouse – Virginia Woolf [OWC]

Mimesis: the Representation of Reality in Western Literature — finished after 4 years of group discussion, chapter-by-chapter. [OWC]

Universities and the Future of America – Derek Bok [OWC]

The Intellectual Foundation of Information Organization – Elaine Svenonius [OWC]

The Nature of “A Work”: Implications for the Organization of Knowledge – Richard P. Smiraglia [OWC]

The Joke – Milan Kundera [OWC]

Love and Garbage – Ivan Klíma [blog post] [OWC]

Advances in Classification Research Vol. 13 [OWC]

Conspicuous Consumption – Thorsten Veblen [OWC] “Unproductive consumption of goods is honourable”

Some of you may notice the Svenonius, Smiraglia, and others and say they are LIS materials. So? I chose to read these books. They were not for any course; they were for me. And in the case of Svenonius and Smiraglia, I am better for it.

Wow. See. Twelve books. I did it without even trying; although, these are all fairly short books.

While it is a short list, all but one were well worth the effort. I wish I could say the same about the Warner book. It is brilliant in points, but on the whole is not fully cohesive as a whole, and there is simply some bad, or lack of, editing. I have met and heard Julian Warner speak twice now. I must say he is more impressive in person.

Since it is unlikely I will read anymore books “for fun” this year, I am going to go ahead and post this. So. On to next year’s reading and the wonders, joys, experiences, and challenges that it will provide.

7 thoughts on “Books read in 2006”

  1. Pingback: XMAS Post hoc comments: “Bah, humbug!” | Off the Mark

  4. Ooh, speaking of “the work”, the paper I did a bunch of work for is finally going to get published, and I’m getting 2nd authorship. Whoohoo! It’s title is going to be “making the pieces fit: little women, works, and the pursuit of quality.” It’s good to know that those 1000+ marc records I coded are going to pay off.

  5. Yay! Congrats! Let us know when and where; whenever that might be.

    The title sure sounds interesting.

    Damn, I must be slacking. Guess it’s time I take Christina’s suggestion and do me some “science” so I, too, can make a contribution. ;)

    Christina, you know I’m teasing you. In fact, I hope you know that I agree with what you said, despite my trying to counter it with my own experiential mode(s) of the process.

    “As for proving and defending your ideas/work, that is how science works. Conference papers, boards, etc., are about social construction of knowledge. You reading and writing on your own without defending or explaining to the world does not further the science. IMHO.”
    http://marklindner.info/blog/2007/01/05/why-and-when-did-education-become-purely-instrumental/#comment-1720

    The only place we probably differ is in what gets to be science and what doesn’t.

  6. I still think it’s an impressive list given the titles. :-)

    btw, have you heard of LibraryThing? I’m addicted. It’s an online catalog for books you own and/or have read. What’s cool is it gives you suggestions based on what people who liked the same books as you have also enjoyed.

  7. Hi Kelly, and thanks. As much as I know quantity is not the goal (or shouldn’t be), it seems to be the standard of our society (conspicuous consumption and all) and becomes hard not to judge oneself by it.

    I have and do use LibraryThing. My account name is the super creative mlindner. Many of my books are still in storage and almost none of the books I have at hand without ISBNs or those not found at LC are in there. I simply don’t have the time to enter them. Someday, hopefully.

    I have yet to use the suggestion/social aspects of LT. Well, I am in 2 groups, I guess. Definitely not the suggestion part other than to look at it, though.

    I guess I already have enough unread items, and being an inveterate footnote chaser leads me to enough stuff without searching out other recommendations. I do take personal recommendations from folks I know because there is a context associated with them. But generally, footnote chasing or reading the influences on whom I have already read (and liked) lead me to more than enough stuff.