January's Textbook Read
Okay, that was a busy month.
My technogeekery status is probably dismally low compared to many esteemed computer workers on my friends-list, but I actually bought one of those netbooks, an Acer-one. Blue, nice and tiny, weighs less than one kg, 160 gig hard drive, runs XP and I've ordered in a better battery so it'll keep running more than three hours. Aside from being faster than the venerable HP laptop I have at work I kind of like the size of the thing. I always hated the rotten Palm computers and those clunky cell phones with keyboards because they were too small to be usable, but this one actually is just small enough to still be usable for presentations, writing and reading anything online.
Anyway, January's textbook.
Sociology 5th Edition by Anthony Giddens
Even I who is no sociologist at all and who at times have severe prejudice against "fuzzy" sciences have heard of Giddens, and his textbooks are indeed translated into Swedish, something which very rarely happens in other subjects at the university level. I'm not sure if it is because Swedish sociology students are too stupid to read in English or if there is another reason, because we're still talking textbooks here, not anything found in a regular bookstore. I bought the English version, anyway. I've briefly read an earlier, Swedish-translated one, and kind of liked it, but this is a much heftier tome of about 1100 pages.
This is a very good textbook. It isn't nearly as "classy" in presentation as December's textbook, it isn't hard bound or having a fancy layout, but it is quite easy to read and the author doesn't shy away from talking about various sociological models. So compared to the History book of last month, this feels much more like an actual introductory university level book with more of a scientific perspective. Giddens starts with chapters on how sociologists work and the theories behind it all, as an example. Following this is chapters on poverty, health, aging, family, ethnicity and so on. It is generally quite good with a distinct negative as an international book being that there's far too much UK examples and too little of comparisons and examples from somewhere else. I understand the book is written for British universities but it still is too much Britain (and Western Europe) and too little World for a book which starts out with a chapter on Globalization.
Anyway. Very good introductory textbook which in a readily comprehensible way presents theories and debates and the sociologists behind them. Well-written without dumbing things down. Not annoying leftist, although I guess a raging traditionalist might be annoyed at times. Easy to read but could have more maps and tables, and really should have more of an international perspective. Also, some sort of more integrated historical perspective would be nice, it is all quite Here (Britain) and Now (2006).
This month I'm going to check out a Psychology textbook. Also UKian but with American co-authors.
My technogeekery status is probably dismally low compared to many esteemed computer workers on my friends-list, but I actually bought one of those netbooks, an Acer-one. Blue, nice and tiny, weighs less than one kg, 160 gig hard drive, runs XP and I've ordered in a better battery so it'll keep running more than three hours. Aside from being faster than the venerable HP laptop I have at work I kind of like the size of the thing. I always hated the rotten Palm computers and those clunky cell phones with keyboards because they were too small to be usable, but this one actually is just small enough to still be usable for presentations, writing and reading anything online.
Anyway, January's textbook.
Sociology 5th Edition by Anthony Giddens
Even I who is no sociologist at all and who at times have severe prejudice against "fuzzy" sciences have heard of Giddens, and his textbooks are indeed translated into Swedish, something which very rarely happens in other subjects at the university level. I'm not sure if it is because Swedish sociology students are too stupid to read in English or if there is another reason, because we're still talking textbooks here, not anything found in a regular bookstore. I bought the English version, anyway. I've briefly read an earlier, Swedish-translated one, and kind of liked it, but this is a much heftier tome of about 1100 pages.
This is a very good textbook. It isn't nearly as "classy" in presentation as December's textbook, it isn't hard bound or having a fancy layout, but it is quite easy to read and the author doesn't shy away from talking about various sociological models. So compared to the History book of last month, this feels much more like an actual introductory university level book with more of a scientific perspective. Giddens starts with chapters on how sociologists work and the theories behind it all, as an example. Following this is chapters on poverty, health, aging, family, ethnicity and so on. It is generally quite good with a distinct negative as an international book being that there's far too much UK examples and too little of comparisons and examples from somewhere else. I understand the book is written for British universities but it still is too much Britain (and Western Europe) and too little World for a book which starts out with a chapter on Globalization.
Anyway. Very good introductory textbook which in a readily comprehensible way presents theories and debates and the sociologists behind them. Well-written without dumbing things down. Not annoying leftist, although I guess a raging traditionalist might be annoyed at times. Easy to read but could have more maps and tables, and really should have more of an international perspective. Also, some sort of more integrated historical perspective would be nice, it is all quite Here (Britain) and Now (2006).
This month I'm going to check out a Psychology textbook. Also UKian but with American co-authors.