Over on Rough Theory, N. Pepperrell and I have been wallowing in our guilt over not being well-read enough (is anyone in academia ever satisfied by how much they know?). Anyway, now seems like an opportune time to share my summer reading list. These are the books I hope to read after I finish my thesis. I know, I’m guilty of counting chickens before they’ve hatched, but I think it’s good to be optimisitic about the future. I don’t list novels because I tend to consume them at a really high pace and I pretty much just read whatever catches my eye when I’m at the library, the bookstore, or spy something lying around the house. Anyway, the books I want to read:
- Southeast Asia Over Three Generations: Essays Presented to Benedict R. O’G. Anderson. I just bought this a couple of weeks ago and I’ll probably just skim it.
- Cultural Citizenship in Island Southeast Asia by Renato Rosaldo. This one I bought a couple of months ago and I’ve also yet to read it. I’ll probably just skim it too.
- Friction by Anna Tsing. Something I got for myself Christmas 2005 which I actually have cracked open, but I’ve never really, you know, read it per se (more like randomly flipped through and lingered on occasional interesting bits).
- Europe and the People Without History by Eric Wolf. Again, I’ve flipped through it, I’ve gotten the gist of it, but damned if I’ve ever actually read it through. Another book from 2005.
- The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity by Jurgen Habermass. I’ve actually read the introduction but not much else beyond that. It’s yet another two year old book that I still haven’t gotten around to reading. Damn you, graduate school! Why can I never have the time to read all these books? Confession: Sometimes I’m tempted to shelve it beside Madness and Civilization just to see what will happen.
- A Thousand Plateaus by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. I keep reading about this book in various articles and such so I figured I might as well see what it actually says. One book review I read says that it builds upon the dynamic duo’s previous work, so does that mean I’ll have to read their other books before I get to this one? I know I’ll probably have to read Capitalism and Schizophrenia at the very least. I wonder, is that enough of a grounding to not feel lost? I admit, I want to read D&G partly because the anime Ghost in the Shell: The Stand Alone Complex is apparently written by Deleuzians. In one episode, a sentient robotic tank is seen reading a copy of Anti-Oedipus. I’d really like to watch this series and get the Deleuzian references.
You know what? This is more of a 2007 reading list, in which case I should have written this list in January. The summer can’t be long enough for me to read all these meaty books. Oh well, yet another reason for me to finish my thesis soon.