Books Read 2017

  1. The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism by Trevor Aaronson
  2. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Unknown, Simon Armitage (Translator)
  3. Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Volume 1 by John Barber
  4. Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Volume 2 by John Barber
  5. Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Volume 3 by John Barber
  6. Transformers: Robots in Disguise, Volume 4 by John Barber
  7. Transformers: Robots In Disguise Volume 5 by John Barber
  8. Transformers: Robots in Disguise Volume 6 by John Barber
  9. Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman by Harold Bloom
  10. The Black Elfstone (The Fall of Shannara, #1) by Terry Brooks
  11. Enter Naomi: SST, L.A. and All That... by Joe Carducci
  12. The Nonexistent Knight by Italo Calvino
  13. The Awakening and Selected Stories by Kate Chopin
  14. 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep by Jonathan Crary
  15. Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto by Jessa Crispin
  16. Captain Marvel (Marvel NOW!) #1 by Kelly Sue DeConnick
  17. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
  18. Daniel Deronda by George Eliot
  19. Star Trek: Harlan Ellison's The City on the Edge of Forever: The Original Teleplay by Harlan Ellison
  20. The Communist Manifesto: A Modern Edition by Friedrich Engels
  21. Farber on Film: The Complete Film Writings by Manny Farber
  22. Essays, Speeches & Public Letters by William Faulkner
  23. The 4-Hour Chef: The Simple Path to Cooking Like a Pro, Learning Anything, and Living the Good Life by Tim Ferriss
  24. When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World by Leon Festinger
  25. Clinton in Haiti: The 1994 US Invasion of Haiti by Philippe Girard
  26. Burning Britain: The History of UK Punk 1980-1984 by Ian Glasper
  27. The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  28. A Philosophy of Tragedy by Christopher Hamilton
  29. Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation by Blake J. Harris
  30. A People's History of the French Revolution by Eric Hazan
  31. Film After Film: (Or, What Became of 21st Century Cinema?) by J. Hoberman
  32. Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign by Michael K. Honey
  33. Reel to Real: Race, Sex, and Class at the Movies by bell hooks
  34. An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen
  35. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
  36. Perpetual Peace and Other Essays by Immanuel Kant
  37. The Future is Queer: A Science Fiction Anthology by Richard Labonté
  38. Engaging the Past: Mass Culture and the Production of Historical Knowledge by Alison Landsberg
  39. The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and the Stories by Nella Larsen
  40. Wellsprings by Mario Vargas Llosa
  41. Identity Crisis by Brad Meltzer
  42. My Damage: The Story of a Punk Rock Survivor by Keith Morris
  43. Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore by Albert Mudrian
  44. A Year at the Movies: One Man's Filmgoing Odyssey by Kevin Murphy
  45. Kill All Normies: Online Culture Wars from 4chan and Tumblr to Trump and the Alt-Right by Angela Nagle
  46. Employee of the Month and Other Big Deals by Mary Jo Pehl
  47. Visual Storytellling: An Illustrated Reader by Todd James Pierce
  48. Why Be Something That You're Not: Detroit Hardcore 1979-1985 by Tony Rettman
  49. Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson
  50. Green Gone Wrong: How Our Economy Is Undermining the Environmental Revolution by Heather Rogers
  51. Get In The Van: On The Road With Black Flag (Second Edition) by Henry Rollins
  52. American Isis: The Life and Art of Sylvia Plath by Carl Rollyson
  53. Lazarus, Vol. 1: Family by Greg Rucka
  54. Der Mond: The Art of Neon Genesis Evangelion by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto
  55. Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat by J. Sakai
  56. A New Companion to Digital Humanities by Susan Schreibman
  57. The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet
  58. Change Agent by Daniel Suarez
  59. Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings by Mark Twain
  60. Saga, Vol. 1 (Saga, #1) by Brian K. Vaughan
  61. Saga, Vol. 2 (Saga, #2) by Brian K. Vaughan
  62. A Brief History of Portable Literature by Enrique Vila-Matas
  63. Dublinesque by Enrique Vila-Matas
  64. Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson
  65. Ms. Marvel, Vol. 2: Generation Why by G. Willow Wilson
  66. The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople by Susan Wise Bauer
  67. How Fiction Works by James Wood
  68. No Slam Dancing, No Stage Diving, No Spikes: An Oral History of the Legendary City Gardens by Amy Yates Wuelfing
  69. What's My Name, Fool? Sports and Resistance in the United States by Dave Zirin

Books Read In 2016

  1. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
  2. A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story by Diana Butler Bass
  3. The History of the Ancient World: From the Earliest Accounts to the Fall of Rome by Susan Wise Bauer
  4. The History of the Medieval World: From the Conversion of Constantine to the First Crusade by Susan Wise Bauer
  5. Heavy Metal Music In Britain by Gerd Bayer
  6. The Slow Professor: Challenging the Culture of Speed in the Academy by Maggie Berg
  7. The Smart Girl's Guide to Privacy: Practical Tips for Staying Safe Online by Violet Blue
  8. Monsieur Pain by Roberto Bolano
  9. Nazi Literature In The Americas by Roberto Bolano
  10. The Unknown University by Roberto Bolano
  11. The Secret History of Science Fiction by T.C. Boyle
  12. The Sorcerer's Daughter: The Defenders of Shannara by Terry Brooks
  13. Letters, 1941-1985 by Italo Calvino
  14. Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History Of The Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang
  15. Lion's Pride: The Turbulent History of New Japan Pro Wrestling by Chris Charlton
  16. X-Men: Days Of Future Past by Chris Claremont
  17. Disgrace: A Novel by J.M. Coetzee
  18. Panther In The Hive by Olivia A. Cole
  19. Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous by Gabriella Coleman
  20. The Student Loan Scam: The Most Oppressive Debt in U.S. History and How We Can Fight Back by Alan Collinge
  21. Secret Identity Crisis: Comic Books and the Unmasking of Cold War America by Matthew J. Costello
  22. Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica by Kevin Courrier
  23. Unfortunately, It Was Paradise: Selected Poems by Mahmoud Darwish
  24. Star Trek Archives: The Best Of Peter David
  25. Women In Class Struggle by Marlene Dixon
  26. Mystery Science Storybook: Bedtime Tales Based on the Worst Movies Ever by Sugar Ray Dodge
  27. The Life Engineered by JF Dubeau
  28. Husker Du: The Story Of The Noise-Pop Pioneers Who Launched Modern Rock by Andrew Earles
  29. On Literature by Umberto Eco
  30. Selected Essays, Poems, and Other Writings by George Eliot
  31. Picture Windows: How The Suburbs Happened by Elizabeth Ewen
  32. False Choices: The Faux Feminism Of Hilary Rodham Clinton by Liza Featherstone
  33. Welcome To Night Vale: A Novel by Joseph Fink
  34. The Minutemen's Double Nickels on the Dime by Michael Fournier
  35. Nirvana's In Utero by Gillian Gaar
  36. Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? by Neil Gaiman
  37. The Game of Our Lives: The English Premier League and the Making of Modern Britain by David Goldblatt
  38. Imagine: Living In A Socialist USA by Frances Goldin
  39. Anxiety: A Short History by Allan V. Horwitz
  40. Queen Of Chaos: The Misadventures Of Hillary Clinton by Diana Johnstone
  41. The Walking Dead Volume One by Robert Kirkman
  42. The Walking Dead Volume Two by Robert Kirkman
  43. Capitalism: A Short History by Jurgen Kocka
  44. Flu: The Story Of The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It by Gina Kolata
  45. State & Revolution by Vladimir Lenin
  46. Daredevil: Born Again by Frank Miller
  47. Milton and the Post-Secular Present: Ethics, Politics, Terrorism by Feisal Mohamed
  48. All Star Superman by Grant Morrison
  49. Alice Munro's Best: Selected Stories by Alice Munro
  50. Batman & Green Arrow: The Poison Tomorrow by Dennis O'Neil
  51. The Simpsons: An Uncensored, Unauthorized, History by John Ortved
  52. Game Boy World: 1989: A History of Nintendo Game Boy, Volume One by Jeremy Parish
  53. The Apology by Plato
  54. The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin by Corey Rubin
  55. Islamic Science and the Making of the European Renaissance by Goerge Saliba
  56. The Assasination Complex: Inside The Government's Secret Drone Warface Program by Jeremy Scahill
  57. Batgirl 2012 Annual by Gail Simone
  58. Lumberjanes Volume One by Noelle Stevenson
  59. Lumberjanes Volume Two by Noelle Stevenson
  60. The ABCs Of Socialism by Bhaskar Sunkara
  61. The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia by Patrick Thorpe
  62. The People: The Rise and Fall of the Working Class, 1910-2010 by Selina Todd
  63. The Monsters Of Education Technology by Audrey Watters
  64. Lumberjanes Volume Three by Shannon Watters
  65. Lumberjanes Volume Four by Shannon Watters
  66. Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
  67. Race Matters by Cornell West
  68. Crisis On Infinite Earths by Marv Wolfman
  69. A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft

PhillyDH: Literary Analysis of 19th/20th Century Texts

My day at PhillyDH began in a session on the literary analysis of 19th and 20th century texts...
• Have students look at off the beaten path 19c texts to see what else is happening during the era (so say not Eliot, Brontes, etc).
• Looking at newspapers from a certain year and connect to a text/genre.
• Using keyword search to map out main characters---victim---tropes---linguistic patterns
• How can text analysis lead to better close reading?
• Google NGraw can help, but does have limitations...could help students see cultural influences
• I had a class figure out % of characters speaking in King Lear and then write response to how this affected their close reading.
• How does students lack of curiosity about technology hurt implementing digital humanities projects?
• How does automation further injure this?
• Collaboration between liberal arts and STEM classes.
• How do we get collaborative feedback during projects?

Books Read In 2013

  1. Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson
  2. For Love Of Evil by Piers Anthony
  3. Amulet by Roberto Bolano
  4. Bloodfire Quest by Terry Brooks
  5. The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares
  6. Homeland by Cory Doctorow
  7. Pirate Cinema by Cory Doctorow
  8. Falling Man by Don Delillo
  9. Middlemarch by George Eliot
  10. What Lips My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves and Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay by Carolyn Maddux
  11. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
  12. Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill
  13. And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut, A Life by Charles Shields
  14. Freedom by Daniel Suarez
  15. Kill Decision by Daniel Duarez
  16. In Defense of Terror: Liberty or Death in The French Revolution by Sophie Wahnich
  17. The Broom of the System by David Foster Wallace
  18. A Supposedly Fun Thing I Will Never Do Again by David Foster Wallace
  19. Conversations With David Foster Wallace
  20. Enemies: A History of the FBI by Tim Weiner
  21. Hacking the Academy: New Approaches to Scholarship and Teaching from Digital Humanities Anthology

Worth Reading Recently

Weekly Reader

Meanwhile…

  • The New Yorker piece on Obama’s early years in Chicago politics is another indicator he is just as scummy and slimy as the next politician.  Making the right friends, the right votes, the right influences; you might counter by saying “that’s politics” but I say that if you take part in that crap, I blame you.  I’d rather have no government than one filled with slimeballs.  None of the above…yet again…in 2008.

  • Alexander Solzhenitsyn recently passed away.  When we moved to Manahawkin, I remember the first friend I made was reading The Gulag Archipelago at the time.  We started to bond while discussing that and other books.

  • Io9 offers a guide for fans of the modern Doctor Who series who wish to get into the classic series.

  • Veronica Esposito comments on the amazing ending of The Mill On The Floss and links to a review of the novel from a 1860 issue of The Atlantic.

  • PETA still sucks as much as I remember.