mamamusings

occupational benefits

One of the very best parts of being a university professor is being able to get free books from many publishers. It makes sense for them, because I’m unlikely to assign a book to my students if I haven’t had a chance to review it carefully. During the school year, however, I’m usually trying very hard to keep my head above water with the things I have to read, so I don’t take too much advantage of the benefit.

Summer is approaching, however. This is week 10/10 for classes, and next week I’ll be grading final projects and presentations. That means I’m only a week and a half away from being able to immerse myself in books that I’ve been wanting to read. So today I placed a bunch of orders—some using my faculty book allowance (some publishers, alas, don’t give freebies), and others taking advantage of generous faculty review copy policies. Here’s what’s on my reading list for June:

• Digital Culture, Play, and Identity: A World of Warcraft Reader (edited by Hilde Corneliussen and Jill Walker Rettberg)
• Ted Castronova’s Exodus to the Virtual World: How Online Fun is Changing Reality
• Henry Jenkins’ Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide
• Mark Meadows’ I, Avatar: The Culture and Consequences of Having a Second Life
• Joshua Porter’s Designing for the Social Web
• Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery
• Gene Smith’s Tagging: People-powered Metadata for the Social Web
• Jonathan Zittrain’s The Future of the Internet — And How to Stop It

And if I hadn’t already received a copy and started reading it, I’d add to that list

• Clay Shirky’s wonderful new book Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations

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