Category Archives: Books

Some Things I’ve Discovered Using Readerware and LibraryThing

Posted on August 4, 2006 by Timothy Burke

I’m having tons of fun cataloging my books. If anyone’s been watching the LibraryThing bloglet in my sidebar, it’s been oscillating wildly between my Africanist collection in the office and my science fiction shelves at home at various points during … Continue reading →

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From the Mixed-Up Bookshelves: Reader’s Digest Illustrated History of South Africa

Posted on August 3, 2006 by Timothy Burke

The Reader’s Digest Illustrated History of South Africa (subtitled The Real Story), in the revised third edition, is the best historical textbook I have ever seen. I’d assign this book in a second in relevant classes. Only problem is that … Continue reading →

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From the Mixed-Up Bookshelves: “Homelands, Harlem and Hollywood”

Posted on August 2, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Rob Nixon’s published work seems to me like a good direction for the more public, accessible side of scholarly discourse to be heading over the long haul, particularly his 2001 book Dreambirds. That could be what we’re looking for out … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Books, The Mixed-Up Bookshelves | 1 Comment

From the Mixed-Up Bookshelves: “African History For Beginners”

Posted on August 1, 2006 by Timothy Burke

We have a bunch of the “For Beginners” books published by Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative (WRP) at home somewhere, almost all of them from when they came in fairly plain if stylish brown covers. Someone should write a book … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Books, The Mixed-Up Bookshelves | 4 Comments

From the Mixed-Up Bookshelves of Professor Timothy J. Burke

Posted on July 31, 2006 by Timothy Burke

I’ve promised (threatened?) to do something like this before, but I’m really committed now. I’ve been meaning to sit down with my bookshelves and go through them very seriously, to re-examine books I’ve read in the past and read newer … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, The Mixed-Up Bookshelves | 6 Comments

Octavia Butler

Posted on February 27, 2006 by Timothy Burke

I just found out that Octavia Butler died on Saturday. I enjoyed almost all of her work but her Xenogenesis series was an especially remarkable achivement. It’s no secret that a lot of science fiction is built on top of … Continue reading →

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Book Notes: Franco Moretti, Graphs, Maps, Trees

Posted on January 13, 2006 by Timothy Burke

Of all the odd things Iâ€™ve heard in recent years, one of the oddest would be that there are objections in principle to the research paradigm that Franco Moretti describes in Graphs, Maps, Trees. It really doesnâ€™t matter what your … Continue reading →

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Unbelief and Imagination

Posted on December 8, 2005 by Timothy Burke

So The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has arrived, and in its wake, much as I would have expected, a fairly vigorous undercurrent of debate about C.S. Lewis and Christianity, both on weblogs and elsewhere. So far the smartest … Continue reading →

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Book Notes: Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight

Posted on November 14, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Alexandra Fuller’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight has been met with justified acclaim. I use this book in my courses quite a bit, and now I’ve suggested it to some Swarthmore alumni reading groups (whose members would be … Continue reading →

Posted in Africa, Books | 5 Comments

Diamond, Cultural Anthropology, Postcolonial Theory

Posted on September 7, 2005 by Timothy Burke

Frederick Errington and Deborah Gewertz have made a series of interesting posts about Jared Diamond, “Yali’s Question” and Papua New Guinea at Savage Minds. I agree with a number of comments I understand them to be making, particularly that Diamond’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Academia, Books | 6 Comments