Sunday, November 27, 2011

Bibliophile: Feng Shui Blogging: An Easy and Practical Guide Packed with Exciting Hints to Enhance Your Hit Count

Bibliophile: because an ink fetish is nothing to be ashamed of. Right? Right?

Let's see what's new and interesting in the university ledgers this week:

Most of the first 500 are videos available on a database not accessible at my university. So skipping over those really speeds up the process.

Two regimes of madness : texts and interviews, 1975-1995 / Gilles Deleuze ; edited by David Lapoujade ; translated by Ames Hodges and Mike Taormina New York : Semiotext(e).
I've always felt kind of bad that I haven't read a lot of Deleuze and Guattari; I have the first 100 pages or so of A Thousand Plateaus read, but that's about it. Generally speaking, either of them are worth further reading, although what you get out of them depends how open you are to the more "ramble" based side of the French theorists.



What if Derrida was wrong about Saussure? / Russell Daylight. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, c2011
I first came across Derrida and Saussure when I had to read Of Grammatology for a class on Jean-Jacques Rosseau. It utterly baffled me, but I think I have enough of it down now, six years later, that I could follow this book. Maybe.

Freud on coke / David Cohen. London : Cutting Edge Press, 2011.
A detailed investigation of Freud's coke use and its impact/allegiance with his general theories? Yeah, I'd read that. In general, we need more books on long-standing humanity theorist go-to figures, and their various drug addictions.

Hurt feelings : theory, research, and applications in intimate relationships / Luciano L'Abate.
I feel like this is a book that could be utterly fascinating, grant me great insight into human behavior, and make it that much more unlikely that I will ever be able to sustain a long term relationship.


Fengshui for joys of sex : an easy and practical guide packed with tips and exciting hints to enhance happiness in love, sex and romance / Ashwinie Kumar Bansal.
I feel like this is a book that could be utterly fascinating, grant me great insight into human behavior, and make it that much more unlikely that I will ever be able to sustain a long term relationship. But mostly because I'm worried I wouldn't be able to remember any of the positions unless I take notes with me. I also love that this is by the same author who wrote Fengshui for Offices ; An Easy and Practical Guide to Improve Efficiency and to Fulfil Your Career Goals. Because those are two very close subjects.

God laughs & plays : churchless sermons in response to the preachments of the fundamentalist right / David James Duncan.
I'm not particularly religious, but I know which side of the debate I'd be rooting for.


Bureau of missing persons : writing the secret lives of fathers / Roger J. Porter.
This sounds interesting, and it's one for you autobiography scholars out there: Porter is studying memoirs of people whose fathers led some sort of secret life, focusing on how their desire to learn about their sires (sorry) turned them into detectives searching for the missing people that were right in front of them. It features, among others, Paul Aster and Alison Bechdel of Fun Home.

Evening's empire : a history of the night in early modern Europe / Craig Koslofsky.
I mention this only because I wanted to make a joke about it being good nighttime reading.


Video games and learning : teaching and participatory culture in the digital age / Kurt Squire ; foreword by James Paul Gee ; featuring contributions by Henry Jenkins.
It's not even remotely where my interest in game studies lies, but it's got Jenkins and James Paul Gee, and I feel scholarly obligated to mention anything related to videogames when it comes up.

Selling sex short : the pornographic and sexological construction of women's sexuality in the West / by Meagan Tyler.
I have a feeling I might have mentioned this before; the cover is certainly familiar. Ah, well--I bring it up now because I don't think we should really accept "sexology" as a word.

Carnal resonance : affect and online pornography / Susanna Paasonen.
This plays a little more to my interests. Digital tech interests, I mean, not... ahem. At any rate, I recently went over a 2002 paper on this subject with my students. They were very, very reluctant to talk. So I'm interested in Passonen's book, on the level of how we respond to the issue.

Motherhood online / edited by Michelle Moravec. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK : Cambridge Scholars Pub., 2011.
I just wanted to juxtapose a book on online pornography with a book on online motherhood. If the next book's about online old age, we'll have a nice gamut of human life cycle going.

Sex cells : the medical market for eggs and sperm / Rene Almeling. Berkeley : University of California Press, c2011.
Points for the pun.

Siblings : brothers and sisters in American history / C. Dallett Hemphill.
My brothers never call me. Sigh...

Getting wasted : why college students drink too much and party so hard / Thomas Vander Ven.
This gets a mention because there's a picture of a girl doing a beer bong on the cover. How many academic books can say the same? In case you were wondering, the answer to the title question appears to be "peer pressure."


Very small cafés & restaurants / John Stones
This would be a perfect coffee table book for a very small... eh, maybe a little too on the nose.

Duels and duets : why men and women talk so differently / John L. Locke.
Locke argues that, based on physiological difference, men are better at conversational arguments, whereas women operate on collaboration. I know some women who would challenge this argument--and thus invalidate it.

Drunk as a lord : samurai stories / Ryotaro Shiba ; translated by Eileen Kato.
I know I'm guilty of cultural tourism here, but... this sounds awesome.

Essential Avengers by Roy Thomas, Harlan Ellison, Steve Englehart at el.
This gets a mention because it's comic books. Also: Harlan Ellison! Writing superheroes!

Characters and plots in the fiction of Raymond Chandler / Robert L. Gale.
I hope there's a lot about the Operative.

Sweet invention : a history of dessert / Michael Krondl.
Okay, this one's here because I'm hungry.

...And that brings another end to a round of Bibliophile. Till next week, then.

Later Days.

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