Featured Reading
Book Roundup
Posted December 1, 2011
It’s been a very busy time in the semester, with two classes going – Foreign Reporting and Photography. I’m in the thick of my book writing project, as well, and I’ve been able so far to maintain a fairly good pace. The hope is to be finished by early spring.
In lieu of even thumbnail impressions, here is a quick roundup of what I’ve been reading:
What Price for Privatization: Cultural Encounter with Development Policy on the Zambian Copperbelt, by Elizabeth C. Parsons;
The Rebel, by Albert Camus;
A Moveable Feast, by Ernest Hemingway;
Ancient Chinese Thought, Modern Chinese Power, by Yan Xuetong;
Delivering Delivering Development, by Edward R. Carr;
La Silenciosa Conquista China: Una Investigacion por 25 Paises para Descubrir Como La Potencia del Siglo XXI Esta Forjando Su Futura Hegemonia, by Juan Pablo Cardenal and Heriberto Araujo;
Scouting on two continents, by Major Frederick Russell Burnham;
Copper boom in Zambia : boom for whom?, by Chola Mwitwa, Claude Kabemba;
Zambia, mining, and neoliberalism : Boom and bust on the globalized Copperbelt, edited by Alastair Fraser and Miles Larmer;
Remaking Rwanda: State Building and Human Rights after Mass Violence, edited by Scott Strauss and Lars Waldorf.
Next up for me:
China in Ten Words, by Yu Hua;
Arrival City, by Doug Sanders;
The Origins of AIDS, by Jacques Pepin.
The Ideal Man: The Tragedy of Jim Thomson and the American Way of War, by Joshua Kurlantzick
As I say whenever the opportunity presents itself, what a blessing it is to work in the midst of a great library, such as the Columbia system’s.
Other recent Readings
Summer Reading via the iPad
I’ve been on the road in Africa, save for a week’s detour to Hungary, since May 15, and the odyssey will finally wind down in a couple of more weeks. In the last few days I’ve given a bit of thought to my reading habits on the road and how they may or may not differ from earlier periods in my life as a correspondent and inveterate traveler. My iPad has been my sole source of book reading during these months away and mostly that’s been a very good thing, even if quite recently I’ve found myself longing for the pleasure of a physical book now and then. I seem to read faster on the iPad, and it’s also great …
Posted August 22, 2011
Books by E.O. Wilson
I’ve been reading a lot of Wilson lately, in preparation for a meeting with him – details to come. Other than in the general press, I haven’t done a lot of true science reading for a very long time, but what an extraordinary pleasure this has been. To be truthful, the books I’ve read have been written for the general public and bear no relationship to scholarly writing, but that takes nothing at all away from its value; quite the contrary. Two titles that I think are fantastic introductions to this man’s work are: The Future of Life, and especially, Biophilia (links below). I also enjoyed Anthill: A Novel, Wilson’s late-career foray into fiction. Amazon.com Widgets
Posted July 17, 2011
When China Rules the World: The Rise of the Middle Kingdom and the End of the Western World
Posted January 3, 2010
Zen in the Art of Archery
Eugene Herrigel with an introduction by D.T. Suzuki
Posted October 2, 2009
Africa’s Freedom Railway: How a Chinese Development Project Changed Lives and Livelihoods in Tanzania
