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Category Archives: Books
Slippery and Sticky
It’s summer, so I’m trying to make a dent in a big pile of books sitting by my desk. One of the first I’ve tackled is Chip Heath and Dan Heath, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Other … Continue reading
Lloyd Alexander and Moral Instruction
Lloyd Alexander died late last week at the age of 83. His work, particularly his Prydain Chronicles, has been routinely recommended for kids who have enjoyed the Harry Potter series. The Prydain books were among my absolute favorites when I … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Politics
16 Comments
Reading is FUNdamental?
The History of Reading course I taught this semester for the first time turned out to be one of my favorite classes ever for a lot of reasons, very much including the students in the course. In the middle of … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Books
35 Comments
The Bait the Fish Refuses
I mostly buy books from Amazon, but I was looking at the SF and fantasy section today in the local Borders. I confess I find some new SF and fantasy by its packaging. Is the title interesting? The spine design … Continue reading
Posted in Books
22 Comments
Antibooks
Since some of the other cool kids are looking at LibraryThing’s Unsuggester, I thought I’d add a few comments. I think John Emerson is basically right that it has to do with the peculiar sample at LibraryThing in the first … Continue reading
Posted in Books, The Mixed-Up Bookshelves
10 Comments
The Years of Rice and Salt
A couple of people responding in the “Production of History” thread have suggested Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt for the week on time travel and alternate history. The suggestion is a great one, and I love … Continue reading
Posted in Africa, Books
18 Comments
The Bérubéan Moment
The general argument and specific claims of Michael Berube’s What’s Liberal About the Liberal Arts? are as comfortable for me as a well-worn chair. I’ve been reading them at his blog for some time, adopting and using many of his … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Politics
46 Comments
Checking the Reputation Capital Account
I tend to read academic work outside my fields of specialization to a fairly significant extent, which I suppose is not news to anyone who has read this blog for any length of time. Some of what I read I … Continue reading
From the Mixed-Up Bookshelves: The Culture of the Copy
Just a quick note on this 1996 book, which makes for an interesting contrast to Norton’s Republic of Signs. I don’t know anything about Hillel Schwartz, though I have two of his books. He’s got a good eye for interesting … Continue reading
Posted in Books, The Mixed-Up Bookshelves
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From the Mixed-Up Bookshelves: Republic of Signs
Continuing my voyage in the Wayback Machine to the early 1990s, I was re-reading Anne Norton’s 1993 work Republic of Signs: Liberal Theory and American Popular Culture. I liked the book when I first read it and I still do. … Continue reading
Posted in Academia, Books, The Mixed-Up Bookshelves
Comments Off on From the Mixed-Up Bookshelves: Republic of Signs