Monday, July 30, 2007

reading list

Before I left for Germany, I deposited two boxes of books in my family's garage. They consisted of books I did not need immediately but which could be necessary before I was able to access the bulk of my library somewhere in a plywood storage pod in Wooster, MA. I am now faced with the same dilemma as I go through the boxes, deciding what I will need for the next five months and what can wait until I finish my Ph.D., at the latest. For most of the books, the choice was easy but there remains a sizeable stack that are on the fence, including, among others:

A.J.P. Taylor, The Course of German History
Peter Fritzsche, Germans into Nazis
Frederic Jameson, The Ideology of Theory
Hannah Arendt, Men in Dark Times
Roland Barthes, Mythologies
Julia Kristeva, The Power of Horror
Karsten Harries, Infinity and Perspective

I have decided that the best way to make the choice is to actually start to read these books - at least as many chapters as possible. I've had some of them for almost a decade now, carting them from residence to residence, to the point of absurdity. But I've only recently begun to believe I have the mental chops to tackle some of them or the emotional strength to handle others.

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