Books Read: 2011

[REPO Man]

Good read from the teen-lit section. A very engaging and fresh reimagining of the vampire myth, eschewing mysticism in favor of biology and parasitism.

Currently reading Gossip Girl (shut up!), and so far it's much more explicit than the television show based on the books.

[saturnfan]

1. Disquisition on Government - John C. Calhoun
2. Darkly Dreaming Dexter - Jeff Lindsay
3. Breaking the Backcountry: Seven Year's War in Virgina and Pennsylvania, 1754-1765 -Matthew C. Ward
4. Christianity in Latin America: A History - Ondina and Justo Gonzalez
5. The French and Indian War: Deciding the Fate of North America - Walter R. Borneman
6. Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan, 1517-1570
7. John C. Calhoun and the Price of Union - John Niven
8. Hall of Mirrors - Laura A. Lewis
9. Inka Bodies and the Body of Christ - Carolyn Dean (half read)
10. Texas Revolution - William C. Binkley
11. Wild Yankees - Paul B. Moyer
12. Fries's Rebellion: The Enduring Struggle for the American Revolution - Paul Douglas Newman
13. Taming Democracy - Terry Bouton
14. Dimity Convictions - Barbara Welter
15. The Faces of the Gods - Leslie G. Desmangles
16. The Presidency of James K. Polk - Paul H. Bergeron
17. Colonization After Emancipation: Lincoln and the Movement for Black Resettlement - Phillip W. Magness and Sebastian N. Page
18. Freedom Under Siege - Ron Paul
19. Mighty Stonewall - Frank E. Vandiver
20. The Confederacy as a Revolutionary Experience - Emory M. Thomas
21. The Dawn of a New Era, 1250 -1453 - Edward P. Cheyney
22. Lincoln's Darkest Year: The War in 1862 - William Marvel
23. The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn - Nathaniel Philbrick
24. George, Nicholas and Wilhelm: Three Royal Cousins and the Road to World War I - Miranda Carter
25. North against South: The American Iliad, 1848-1877 - Ludwell H. Johnson
26. The Corpse Walker – Yiwi Liao
27. History in Three Keys – Paul A. Cohen
28. Discovering History in China – Paul A. Cohen
29. Communist Manifesto – Karl Marx
30. Neanderthin - Ray Audette
31. The Paleo Diet - Loren Cordain
32. Reason and Revelation in the Middle Ages – Etienne Gilson (new)
33. The Origin of the Idea of the Crusade - Carl Erdmann (new)
34. The Primal Blue Print – Mark Sisson (new)
35. We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism – John Derbyshire (new)
36. The Private Life of Chairman Mao – Dr. Li Zhisui (new)

Well here is the next update of books I have finished. I won’t say much about them since it is a large group, but it is primarily a reflection of my school reading. I have also partially read a few other books, but have not included them in the list, since I felt I didn’t read enough of it to qualify, or I still intend on finishing the book for my own entertainment.

As we are coming to the end of the year, my goal of reading 50 books still stands, although I might have to “cheat” and read some of the shortest books that are floating around in my collection. Fitting in 14 books might be tough, but its not impossible.

[retrosportsgamer]

Has anyone else read Extra Lives: Why Video Games matter?

I did a search here and couldn't find anything about the authoer, Tom Bissell.

[REPO Man]

Awesome. Can't wait to read the next volume.


Loved it, but seriously... where's the film adaptation?

[REPO Man]

First off, I swear to GOD that if you don't STFU, you SHALL be sent to your maker in cardboard box where your shotgun-blasted corpse was buried in...



I've only read the first book (and yes, I plan on reading the next one) and seen the pilot of the TV show (which I plan on watching), and the book is WAY racier.

For one, the language is very R-rated.

For another, there's one particular plotline worth mentioning: the character of Serena gets her picture taken by photographers who take artistic photographs of celebrity

assholes

.

In a way, it feels like it's trying to be a 21st century Less Than Zero, which it is not. At best, it's a subpar attempt at making an R-rated teen soap. But it's kinda fun reading about fucked-up teenagers.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Language and Politics by Noam Chomsky. What a beast that was to get through.

I don't read as much as I should.

[o.pwuaioc]

[o.pwuaioc]

[dsheinem]

Pirate Latitudes - Michael Crichton
Foundation - Isaac Asimov
Rhetoric Online: The Politics of New Media - Barbara Warnick and David S. Heineman *new*
Foundation and Empire - Isaac Asimov *new*
Korea's Online Gaming Empire - Dal Yong Jin *new*

Rhetoric Online I've read and re-read about 20 times this year, and starting in January you will also be able to do so if you please . If you are interested in a theoretical approach to how political processes are beings shaped by new media technologies (and vice versa), you should find something interesting in this one.

Foundation and Empire I finished late last week, and while I enjoyed the first Foundation novel much more, this one was still a fun ride with a great ending. I hope to read the next one - Second Foundation - in the very near future.

Korea's Online Gaming Empire is a very informative read, and I truly learned a lot about a gaming culture and a financial empire that I only sort of had an idea about beforehand. It is probably a bit heavy on media theory and political economy theory for everyone here to enjoy it as simply a book about gaming (it is much more than this), but I imagine several of you would dig it.

I had hoped to get 10-15 titles on my list this year, but things aren't looking real good in that regard. I read so many academic articles and book chapters throughout the year that I really find it hard to read entire books as a leisure activity. Still, I need to kick it into high gear this week and get some popular fiction and nonfiction knocked out.

[retrosportsgamer]

Has anyone else read Extra Lives: Why Video Games matter?

I did a search here and couldn't find anything about the author, Tom Bissell.

Nobody? Kind of surprising - I'll have to put together some thoughts to share.