What I’m Reading This Week

One of the things that I like best about the Kindle is that I can keep a wide variety of reading material at my fingertips. I find that I read more, because I can steal ten minutes here and there (taking a break at midday, waiting in the car for my daughter to be dismissed from school, etc.), and I don’t have to choose ahead of time what I’ll be reading. If I don’t have time to dig into a chapter of something difficult or laborious, I can read a poem or magazine article. If something isn’t holding my attention for whatever reason, I can move on to something else. My friend, Joel Anderson, calls this “Kindle Assisted Attention Deficit Disorder” but I actually think that the device helps me to keep my attention focused. It’s not like reading on the Web where there are constant distractions, and it’s not like being trapped in a room with a single volume (say, War and Peace).

In any case, I thought that from time to time I’d share some of the things that I’m reading. Most of these will be available for Kindle. Many of them will be available free-of-charge, either in the Public Domain, free to Amazon Prime members, or available from a lending library. I might occasionally share my own thoughts on what I’m reading as well, but would encourage you to read for yourself.

Also, I’d love to know what you’re reading. Feel free to post comments with observations, recommendations or a simple bibliography.

Here’s what I’ve been reading this past week.

    

Ten Days That Shook The World – John Reed’s masterpiece gives us a firsthand account of Red October.

Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman sings for soul and body in the finest free-verse America has ever seen.

A People’s History of the United States – From Columbus to the War on Terror, Howard Zinn presents the unvarnished truth. Highly recommended…

Black Flame: The Revolutionary Class Politics of Anarchism and Syndicalism – I have been woefully ignorant concerning the Socialists and Anarchists, and am determined to correct this deficiency in my education during 2012. This book is a very tough read, but I’m finding it worthwhile. Essential study on an important topic from authors Lucien Van Der Walt and Michael Schmidt…

2600 Magazine: The Hacker Quarterly  – An old favorite…