Recommend Books, Please

[queerbychoice]

It's that time of year again and my mother is demanding a birthday list from me. I have an old list that I've been using for years and just crossing things off as they were bought, but I'm bored with everything left on it so I want to compose a new one from scratch. Recommend some stuff I should ask for, please. Especially books. Usually 85% of what I ask for is books.

Comments

Re: nerdy books

[queerbychoice.livejournal.com]

You're ALIVE!!!!

::stares in astonishment, points enthusiastically and yells for everybody in the neighborhood to come look::

I've read (and own) Eve Sedgwick's Tendencies and Michel Foucault's History of Sexuality, Volume I. Now that you mention it, I should probably request volumes two and three. (Yay, I'm out ot my parents now and can actually ask for those things for the first time in ten years!)

A few years ago I bought Donna Haraway's ModestWitness@SecondMilennium.FemaleMan©_Meets_OncoMouse(TM) or whatever the title is, but have been feeling guilty because I just can't honestly get into it or really even much make head or tail of it. Everybody always raves about how great she is and I feel pathetic for not being able to recognize it.

And yeah, I've been Menaing to read Proust's In Search of Lost Time for ages, but have been a wee bit put off by the humongousness of it.

Your literary tastes appear to be surprisingly 19th century-ish. I'm generally more of a late 20th century/21st century kind of person, but I think I'm due for a small dose of the 19th century again now, so thanks!

Re: nerdy books

[theory-girl.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I haven't read the Haraway you mention--I want to, but I'm so pressed for time these days. Zeut. One of my favorite essays of all time is in _Simians, Cyborgs, and Women_--the Manifesto for Cyborgs. Although quite influenced by a cold-war aesthetic (which is sadly becoming more apropos) it is a very vibrant and intriguing work. I don't know if there's any way to get it without buying the entire book, but it's a good piece to start with.

Again, I really recommend Benjamin--the Frankfurt School contains some really interesting ideas, but most of it is overshadowed by relatively non-useful angry German-ness--Benjamin's theories are in the Frankfurt school but more elegant and less marred by bitterness. I found Benjamin to be invaluable in my studies of postmodern theory, for what it's worth.

Yes, I suppose I do have a very Victorian bent, but you see I'm off to Duke this fall to get my Ph.D. in English literature, and I will probably concentrate on late Victorian and early Modern American and British literature, so liking this period is probably a good thing for me. ;)

Anyhow, lastly, I would also recommend(if you haven't read them)

Balzac _Lost Illusions_
pretty much any Faulkner
and, if you want to, you are welcome to join the Heidegger reading club, which has a membership of 1 at this point (me trying to read _Being and Time_ by myself, which is quite a chore). If anyone wants to read along with me I would be overjoyed!