Whatcha reading?

[ToomuchLes]

4 hours ago, Neist said:

I should post in here more. I burn through a lot of books. 

 

Haha I hear you. I started reading Angela Davis's Women, Culture and Politics and finished this afternoon. This is my first time reading her material and wooow... I could feel the passion in her written words. Its one of those books that energizes me to share my findings with people and read more about the topic. Really good book. Tomorrow, Im starting The Cry Was Unity: Communists and African Americans 1917-1936 by Mark Solomon.

 

[Neist]

On 3/23/2016 at 3:15 PM, Neist said:

I actually think that sounds fascinating, but I'm a science and technology guy.  

Got through Rabid, now I'm starting Free Radicals: The Secret Anarchy of Science by Michael Brooks. I'm only about 40 pages in, but I think it's going to be pretty good, or at least better than I thought it might be before starting. 

I should post in here more. I burn through a lot of books. 

Will finish Free Radicals today, and, while I enjoyed it, I think Brooks romanticizes the necessity for 'scientist anarchists' far too much. 

Next up is Brave New World by Huxley. Never read it before, and I think it's time.

Edited March 28, 2016 by Neist
Ugh. I'm so bad with typos.

[mvlchicago]

Enjoy Huxley! You only get to read a classic text for the first time, one time. 

I just got a copy of Jeremy Mumford's Vertical Empire right from the author, so that'll be my next text  .

[Quickmick]

Goldman's Imperial Nature and McNeill's Something New Under the Sun...guilty pleasure-->on book 6 of The Saga of Recluse by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.

More are piling up for schools I don't even attend! lol I have been reading papers by POIs, and during the course of discussions with them it seems they are all suggesting books to read! Oh, and all the stuff for my MS work.

[Danger_Zone]

Not reading any history books at the moment but.. I'm about finished The Bell Jar now (very, very good albeit depressing) and am probably going to read Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre next.  

(Brave New World is great, by the way! Read it a couple times back in high school.)

[Neist]

19 hours ago, mvlchicago said:

Enjoy Huxley! You only get to read a classic text for the first time, one time. 

Thanks! I think I'll enjoy it. I love popular and cultural history, so novels are always apt.

14 hours ago, Danger_Zone said:

Not reading any history books at the moment but.. I'm about finished The Bell Jar now (very, very good albeit depressing) and am probably going to read Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre next.  

(Brave New World is great, by the way! Read it a couple times back in high school.)

To be honest, I read a lot of stuff that isn't directly historical. There's a lot of books on science, technology, or medicine that inform my broader understanding of my research, so I'm always dipping toes into more popularly-targeted pools.

I'll have to share my thoughts on Brave New World when I finish, and Free Radicals got a little better at the end, but I'm still unsure how much I agree with Brooks.

[ToomuchLes]

Its crazy how much we have to read in grad school. Im handling the reading load well, but looking back after a week... sometimes I surprise myself that I can keep up. 

I read South Side Girls: Growing Up in the Great Migration by Marcia Chatelain. Finally! An assigned book on the History of Childhood. Although I've already read it, I very much enjoyed reading it again. 

Also read From the Bullet to the Ballot: The Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and Racial Coalition Politics in Chicago by Jakobi Williams; Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Davis by Carole Davies; and, as a fun read, Havana Storm by Clive Cussler. 

 

[Neist]

9 minutes ago, LeventeL said:

Its crazy how much we have to read in grad school. Im handling the reading load well, but looking back after a week... sometimes I surprise myself that I can keep up. 

I'm just curious, but what sort of load do you have at Bloomington?

I find the differences in programs fascinating.

[ToomuchLes]

Depends on the course and instructor. Typically for a colloquium, we're required to read one monograph, 1-2 articles each week, and then expected to write a 2-3 page response paper. On top of these weekly assignments, we have book reviews, and grant proposals/syllabus projects due throughout the semester, and a single 10-15 page historiography/big project due at the end; but it really varies on the instructor. 

In one class, we have to write a book review, grant proposal and historiography paper; while in another, we have 4 book reviews. 

Research seminars don't require readings (at least not the one that I'm taking). 

What is the workload at your department like? 

[Neist]

2 minutes ago, LeventeL said:

What is the workload at your department like? 

That sounds similar to the history of science department here. About a book per week with a response paper, and a littering of other assignments along the way.

Bordering on the pretty heavy, but definitely doable, as long as one doesn't slack. Good thing I like to read.  But ever are some academics terrible writers. Makes some books a slog.

[Neist]

Completed Brave New World. Took me longer than I hoped, but I've been prepping for a presentation tomorrow, so I'll blame that. I'm sort of a split opinion. As a piece of literature, it was middling quality. However, as a cultural, historical artifact, I found it fascinating. I think I'm going to dig up some secondary essays about it.

Next up is The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. I was turned on to it soon after completing Cataloging the World, and I never seemed to start it.

[lelick1234]

Hello, 

Been bouncing back and forth from Tony Judt's Postwar (pg. 247), Robert Service's The End of the Cold War (pg. 104), and Peter Frankopan's The Silk Roads (pg. 35).  

--Leo

[Neist]

On 4/1/2016 at 1:36 PM, Neist said:

Next up is The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester. I was turned on to it soon after completing Cataloging the World, and I never seemed to start it.

Finished this today. Fantastically interesting. Maybe it's only interesting because I'm a dork who's interested in dictionaries, bibliographies, and taxonomies, but it was a very entertaining read.

Going to dig into College Unbound by Jeffrey Selingo next.

[rising_star]

10 minutes ago, Neist said:

Going to dig into College Unbound by Jeffrey Selingo next.

I read this back in January and enjoyed it. It's definitely an interesting perspective!

[Neist]

On 4/5/2016 at 3:14 PM, rising_star said:

I read this back in January and enjoyed it. It's definitely an interesting perspective!

The book piqued my interest to dig into MOOCs a little, and I actually found something that'd be pretty beneficial to my career in the future...

The data analytics nanodegree at Udacity looks pretty interesting, I come from a humanities background, and it might provide valuable technical training on the cheap, especially considering most of my interests are digital humanities-esque.

Things to think about.

[rising_star]

2 hours ago, Neist said:

The book piqued my interest to dig into MOOCs a little, and I actually found something that'd be pretty beneficial to my career in the future...

Yea, it's definitely gotten me interested in doing some MOOCs or taking some undergrad courses to gain more experience. I'm more likely to take actual courses because I've never been successful doing courses online.

[KLZ]

Sort of like reading... Wacha listening to?

I would love recommendations for podcasts and audiobooks. I love to get my reading on while running, and in the fall I will be commuting to school, so I'll have plenty of time to listen to, but not read, books. To give you a sense of my tastes, I already listen to things like radiolab, freakonomics, intelligence squared (UK & US), this american life & serial, very bad wizards, common sense with dan carlin, and afripod. I'm interested in history stuff, but I also love postcasts that cover topics like religion, politics, moral philosophy, genetics and evolution. 

What do have on your playlist?

[Neist]

8 minutes ago, KLZ said:

Sort of like reading... Wacha listening to?

I would love recommendations for podcasts and audiobooks. I love to get my reading on while running, and in the fall I will be commuting to school, so I'll have plenty of time to listen to, but not read, books. To give you a sense of my tastes, I already listen to things like radiolab, freakonomics, intelligence squared (UK & US), this american life & serial, very bad wizards, common sense with dan carlin, and afripod. I'm interested in history stuff, but I also love postcasts that cover topics like religion, politics, moral philosophy, genetics and evolution. 

What do have on your playlist?

I have a secret to admit. I listen to most of my books.  

I've led a very audio-enriched last decade or so. I own 80 audio books and I've estimated that I've listened to nearly 20,000 podcasts. Besides my audiobooks, I listen to Imaginary Worlds, Radio Lab, 99% Invisible, Welcome to Night Vale, Alice Isn't Dead, Moby Dick Big Read, Lore, This American Life, Mortified, Sword and Scale, The Specialist, The Black Tapes, The Intern, Tanis, Limetown, The Message, Serial, Criminal, Memory Palace, and New Books in Science, Technology, and Society. 

I used to subscribe to at least this twice many podcasts, but my standards have risen high enough that I only listen to podcasts that I really like. As far as history podcasts go, I'd suggest Memory Palace. The podcasts are short, but well-made and interesting. Have you listened to Hardcore History? They were a little too involved for me, but they are okay.

[KLZ]

Yes! Aside from the books I read for class and research, I listen to the rest. I actually try not to read anything that I can find in audio format  

I have listed to Hardcore History. Thanks for the other recommendations. I'll look into the ones I haven't heard of. This is exciting!

[Neist]

Just now, KLZ said:

Yes! Aside from the books I read for class and research, I listen to the rest. I actually try not to read anything that I can find in audio format  

I have listed to Hardcore History. Thanks for the other recommendations. I'll look into the ones I haven't heard of. This is exciting!

I've actually considered switching to text-to-speech for books that are available via e-book. I'm very nearsighted, and I readily welcome anything that reduces my "eye time." Besides, I work full-time and with audio books I can typically finish 2 extra books a week.

Listening to books is far more efficient if one's developed good listening skills, I think.  

[Danger_Zone]

@Neist@KLZHave you found it naturally easy to listen to audiobooks? I've tried multiple times to listen to audiobooks but my mind quickly seems to wander despite my best efforts to stay focused, and even then I find myself losing track of what is being said. I'm a good listener otherwise, but without having something visually in front of me I have a hard time with this.

[Neist]

6 minutes ago, Danger_Zone said:

@Neist@KLZHave you found it naturally easy to listen to audiobooks? I've tried multiple times to listen to audiobooks but my mind quickly seems to wander despite my best efforts to stay focused, and even then I find myself losing track of what is being said. I'm a good listener otherwise, but without having something visually in front of me I have a hard time with this.

I have to be either doing something somewhat thoughtless to listen well, but I've gotten better at it. If I want to attempt an academic or dense work, I take long walks and listen. I walk a lot via commute.

[KLZ]

33 minutes ago, Danger_Zone said:

@Neist@KLZHave you found it naturally easy to listen to audiobooks? I've tried multiple times to listen to audiobooks but my mind quickly seems to wander despite my best efforts to stay focused, and even then I find myself losing track of what is being said. I'm a good listener otherwise, but without having something visually in front of me I have a hard time with this.

I listen while I run or while I'm in the car...that's pretty much it. The only time I have difficulty listening to dense material is when I'm sleepy. I think my mind would wander if I were just sitting round...that's when I watch tv and knit. 

[Neist]

3 hours ago, Neist said:

I have to be either doing something somewhat thoughtless to listen well, but I've gotten better at it. If I want to attempt an academic or dense work, I take long walks and listen. I walk a lot via commute.

I realize it might be apt qualify this statement by stating I listen to audio books at x1.5 speed.

At x1 speed, I'm pretty sure anyone could do most anything and listen, with practice. I started increasing my listening speed when I met a blind law student who listened to his books at something crazy like x2.5 speed.

[Neist]

I finished College Unbound, and I really liked it. I think it should be suggested reading for every high school senior. Additionally, it consider the future of my career. I imagine most of us here want to eventually work in academia, and if Selingo is eventually proved correct, I wonder how that will affect the job market and how I should focus my future graduate career. It was an interesting read.

I've now started Hatching Twitter. Not overly educational, but I'm a science and technology nerd, and I thought it would be interesting.  About a third of the way through already.