[booklog 2007]
i feel like i've misplaced some books, that i must've done more reading than this. mostly, though, i think i haven't been reading because i feel like if i've got time to read books for pleasure, i should be studying.
in any case, these were in the stack of recently-read books:
11. Encounters with the Archdruid, John McPhee. fantastic book. essentially, it is stories created by taking three different men -- a mining engineer, a resort developer (one who developed part of Hilton Head, and who attempted to develop Cumberland Island in Georgia), and a Western dam-builder -- out into the wilderness with a fellow named David Brower, "the most militant conservationist in the world." ("militant" is not the word i'd use, except perhaps philosophically. he's passionate and he's powerful, influential.) each story involves facts, politics, deeply-held beliefs, perspectives from each side, and also the interaction of strong personalities.
i've got two more of his books, Control of Nature and Table of Contents, in progress.
12. & 13. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists and In an Adventure with Ahab, Gideon Defoe. two books in one, set antiparallel. extremely silly. along with the McPhee books, a loan from longueur. thank you!
14. PoMoSexuals -- Challenging Assumptions About Gender and Identity, edited by Carol Queen & Lawrence Schimel. the title-word makes me twitch, but the book itself was a good read in the right way, poking at my brain and making me think about things. written in 1997, and perhaps more than anything else it makes me want to know more of what's being written and thought and said right now. Pat Califia's essay ("Identity Sedition and Pornography") made me go demand that the internet tell me more, so i wandered off through mazes of interviews and essays and articles from the past ten years. other especially good bits: Kate Bornstein's preface ("Queer Theory and Shopping"), Dorothy Allison's story, which i'd read before in one of her collections but still love, and the essays by D. Travers Scott, Carol Queen, Jill Nagle, David Harrison, Riki Anne Wilchins...well, and really all of it, even the bits that didn't resonate as clearly, was very much worth reading.
mmmmm, gender theory.
15. Holidays on Ice, David Sedaris. a quick read and funny, if often painfully so. *laugh* kinda reminded me of George Saunders' CivilWarLand in Bad Decline in parts.
16. & 17. Kaplan MCAT Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences Review Notes, because that's what i've been slogging through for weeks, and i want to mark down that progress somehow.
18. The Bride Wore Black Leather...and he looked fabulous!, Drew Campbell. Tagline: "An etiquette guide for the rest of us." Some bits of it still pissed me off, but most of the basic principles were reasonable and flexible enough, and it was at least mostly an amusing read.
my stack of books-i'm-reading and books-i-want-to-read is getting rather high, especially since i picked up three more from J & ravenslost this evening.
in any case, these were in the stack of recently-read books:
11. Encounters with the Archdruid, John McPhee. fantastic book. essentially, it is stories created by taking three different men -- a mining engineer, a resort developer (one who developed part of Hilton Head, and who attempted to develop Cumberland Island in Georgia), and a Western dam-builder -- out into the wilderness with a fellow named David Brower, "the most militant conservationist in the world." ("militant" is not the word i'd use, except perhaps philosophically. he's passionate and he's powerful, influential.) each story involves facts, politics, deeply-held beliefs, perspectives from each side, and also the interaction of strong personalities.
i've got two more of his books, Control of Nature and Table of Contents, in progress.
12. & 13. The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists and In an Adventure with Ahab, Gideon Defoe. two books in one, set antiparallel. extremely silly. along with the McPhee books, a loan from longueur. thank you!
14. PoMoSexuals -- Challenging Assumptions About Gender and Identity, edited by Carol Queen & Lawrence Schimel. the title-word makes me twitch, but the book itself was a good read in the right way, poking at my brain and making me think about things. written in 1997, and perhaps more than anything else it makes me want to know more of what's being written and thought and said right now. Pat Califia's essay ("Identity Sedition and Pornography") made me go demand that the internet tell me more, so i wandered off through mazes of interviews and essays and articles from the past ten years. other especially good bits: Kate Bornstein's preface ("Queer Theory and Shopping"), Dorothy Allison's story, which i'd read before in one of her collections but still love, and the essays by D. Travers Scott, Carol Queen, Jill Nagle, David Harrison, Riki Anne Wilchins...well, and really all of it, even the bits that didn't resonate as clearly, was very much worth reading.
mmmmm, gender theory.
15. Holidays on Ice, David Sedaris. a quick read and funny, if often painfully so. *laugh* kinda reminded me of George Saunders' CivilWarLand in Bad Decline in parts.
16. & 17. Kaplan MCAT Physical Sciences and Biological Sciences Review Notes, because that's what i've been slogging through for weeks, and i want to mark down that progress somehow.
18. The Bride Wore Black Leather...and he looked fabulous!, Drew Campbell. Tagline: "An etiquette guide for the rest of us." Some bits of it still pissed me off, but most of the basic principles were reasonable and flexible enough, and it was at least mostly an amusing read.
my stack of books-i'm-reading and books-i-want-to-read is getting rather high, especially since i picked up three more from J & ravenslost this evening.