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
Thanks for the reading recommendations, Liz.