January 9, 2014

FRESH READING MATERIAL

Just finished reading (re-reading in the case of Calvino) If on a winter's night a traveler and Meditations in an Emergency. I feel like I read constantly online but this year I'd like to read more physical books and academic texts. Open to any suggestions related to linguistics/language, intersectional feminism, critical race theory, textiles/design, etc.!

Next up on my list: Lunch Poems, Species of Spaces and Other Pieces, To Whom it May Concern, Here and There Vol. 8

11 comments:

tingting said...

junto diaz recommended methodology of oppression a while back. but it was wayyy too dense for me haha. for design: there's a great coffee book on fashion/architecture (just search those terms on amazon).

benita diary said...

I read online sometimes too, but nothing can replace the feel of a book.

b3n-n.blogspot.co.uk

Amanda Thomas said...

I just began the same Perec. The introduction is worth the price of admission; of course the text is beyond such of any pricing system.
Amanda

Mimi said...

it looks like you have a fantastic tbr list so far. for language books, maybe look into begat by david crystal? or shakespeare's words by him and his son ben crystal if you're into shakespeare at all.

for design, if you like typography at all i would suggest little book of lettering and hand job as great places to start. brand thinking by debbie millman if you're into branding and the visual miscellaneum by david mccandless if you like infographics. hope that helps!

Helena said...

I'm sure we could find all we need to know of the internet nowadays but there is something special about books. I'd like to read more non fiction this year. I'm also very interest in linguistics so some books on that would be cool. Let me know how lunch poems goes! I might invest in it myself.

www.prettynostalgia.blogspot.co.uk

Anonymous said...

You could try Quiet by Susan Cain. It's a pretty awesome book.

Anonymous said...

These are not academic books but my favorite fiction books that I reread every few years are:

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (a rare instance of a book successfully made into a film)
Kokoro by Natsume Soseki

Anonymous said...

really recommend Perec's "Cantatrix Sporanica" and "Art of Asking Your Boss for a Raise". Both are among his funniest. The first part of Queneau's "Saint Glinglin" is priceless too. Rgearding lingusitics, really think no one makes language play more fun than the OULIPO writers.

Melissa said...

I'm definitely guilty of reading books online, but I've just picked up the Calvino for the first time.

Christine said...

this is a while ago, but you should probably read Sartre. Specifically, the Critique of Dialectical Reason.

It's philosophy, and it's very heavy. It may be hard to find, but you may enjoy an old library anyway. Sartre's 'dialectic' style of critique will tickle your brain. Like Derrida, he thinks that when we communicate, there is a gap between the word and the thing it refers to (signifier/signified). He argues, however, that the word relies upon a negative definition: a bush is a bush because it is not a tree. Dialectic reasoning utilizes this oppositioning. And THEN he goes to politics, and Marxism, and social organization of humans.

It's remarkable stuff, and great if you're in the mood to get lost in something.

Christine said...

also, for critical race theory: Gary Peller and Kimberle Crenshaw have a wonderful compilation. Peller has an excellent monograph published last year.

Simone De Beauvoir was Sartre's lover, and if you want more French Existentialism, but applied to women you should read The Second Sex. (Helene Cixous is a little more fun, I think)