have i really neglected reading so much lately? well not really
but maybe ive tossed the pleasures of reading to the curb.
as a technical writer, im accustomed to reading extremely dry and uninteresting material. for 11+ years i read european sociology journals and abstracted the often rambling and philosophical content for CSA as a free-lance writer. (a partial list of the core journals i abstracted)
you might think that the pinnacle of entertainment is reading post-modernist, post-feminist, post-structuralist debates deconstructing the metaphor of play in society.
but you would be wrong.
try reading C++: How to Program by Deitel and Deitel (actually fairly well written) or any of the many textbooks i struggled with while getting an MSSE degree at National University.
Bible study is another area of recent interest that requires a lot of reading. my current EFM course is reading-intensive. and while i am edified and inspired and awefilled by reading the Holy Scriptures, it is not always a relaxing and entertaining activity. why do you think its called Bible study?
outside of school- or work- or spiritual-related reading, there is not usually much time left for escapist or pleasure reading.
but all thats changing.
this year, as a matter of fact.
last year i started the historical fiction set in medieval France, Pardonnez nos offenses by Romain Sardou, and i even got through the first few chapters, but the amount of French words i simply did not know was amazing. i spent more time studying the book (looking up and recording words) and approaching it from the standpoint of the translator than actually enjoying it
im following several blogs now, which you can find in the late night reading sidebar blogroll.
- i rarely read the Dilbert strip only because i dont pick up the newspaper, but Scott Adams has a brand of humor i like: it alternates between unexpected one-liners and whimsical nonsense and chablis dryness, where sometimes you dont know if hes funning or not. he also mixes in quite a bit of political comment too.
- anything involving goddess Margaret Cho is a hands down winner.
- Bernard's Sex in the Second City features smart, sassy and spunky posts, with lively comment interaction as followup. i posted my first ever comment on his blog.
- just started looking at Rod's 2.0:beta, but it has some great content plus hes phoine as hell ;) im not sure yet about the presenting/editorializing about current events style blog, but it does have its place. such an approach certainly appeals to a greater readership than my currently oversharing self-analysis therapy style.
Bernard's blog is off-line in 2010.
today i received the non-fiction Cruise Control by Robert Weiss. the reference to this book emerged when reading a comment to a blog posting on fintimacy. its a self-help 12-step guide specifically for gay men who identify with either sexual or love addiction. consider these notable quotables on love addiction i uncovered while skimming the Weiss book*
ok, so its not exactly an entertaining read either.
next on the list, and to be shipped shortly, is Running with Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs. now i ask you: what kind of card-carrying faggot am i if i have never heard of or read anything by this quintessential gay writer?
to be fair, i did read, a few years back both James Earl Hardy's B-Boy Blues and (the late) E. Lynn Harris' The Invisible Life and did enjoy both, though i probably wont reread them.
back in the day (way back, like when i was in my twenties), i remember reading
- Ned Rorem's New York Diary
- Yukio Mishima's Confessions of a Mask
- James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room
- John Rechy's Numbers
- Christopher Isherwood's The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin (the screenplay for Cabaret comes from it)
- and (dont laugh) Gordon Merrick's The Lord Won't Mind and The Front Runner by Patricia Nell Warren (that was before her real son came out against the book, blasting her for being too smaltzy)
thanks BLH for triggering playaj's creative and literary renaissance.
- Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales
- Archives de sciences sociales des religions
- Cahiers de recherche sociologique
- Sociologie et d'Anthropologie
- Civilisations
- Durkheimian Studies/Études durkheimiennes
- Gender & Society
- Histoire sociale/Social History
- International Review of Sociology/Revue Internationale de Sociologie
- L'Année sociologique
- La Critica Sociologica
- Media, Culture & Society
- Quaderni di Sociologia
- Rassegna Italiana di Sociologia
- Recherches Sociologiques
- Religioni e Società
- Revue de l'Institut de Sociologie
- Revue française de Sociologie
- Social Compass
- Sociologia del Diritto
- Sociologie du Travail
- Theory, Culture & Society
