This is one of the reasons I love Kirby. Big decisions relate--as they should--to reading lists, to "the company we keep" (CF: Wayne Booth). I figured that perhaps the contents of my book box would be an appropriate way to kick of the slate of sabbatical-related posts that are to follow. Thus, here's the list. (Subject to negotiation with my wife over how much of the space in the van can be dedicated to books, of course.)
Duh:
- Bible.
- Dictionary.
- Augustine. Confessions.
- Annie Dillard. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and An American Childhood.
- John Hildebrand. Mapping the Farm: The Chronicle of a Family.
- Ted Kooser. Local Wonders: Seasons in the Bohemian Alps.
- Thomas Merton. The Seven Storey Mountain.
- Henri Nouwen. The Genesee Diary.
- Scott Russell Sanders. A Private History of Awe.
- Gordon Hazard. Thoughts and Advice from an Old Cattleman.
- Greg Judy. No-Risk Ranching: Custom Grazing on Leased Land.
- Allan Nation. Knowledge-Rich Ranching.
- Wendell Berry. The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry.
- -----. Home Economics.
- -----. The Way of Ignorance: And Other Essays.
- -----. What are People For?
- Best American Essays (2004-2007).
- Elizabeth Dodd. Prospect: Journeys & Landscapes.
- Scott Russell Sanders. The Force of Spirit.
- -----. Hunting for Hope.
- Scott Cairns. Philokalia: New & Selected Poems.
- Ellmann & O'Clair, eds. The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry.
- Richard Wilbur. Collected Poems: 1943-2004.
- William Carlos Williams. Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems.
- James Wright. Above the River: The Complete Poems.
- Theodore A. Rees Cheney. Writing Creative Nonfiction: Fiction Techniques for Crafting Great Nonfiction.
- Forche & Gerard, eds. Writing Creative Nonfiction.
- Kenneth Davis. Kansas: A History.
- Betty Edwards. The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain.
- Michael Francis Gibson. The Mill and the Cross: Peter Bruegel's "Way to Calvary."
- Kansas Geology: An Introduction to Landscapes, Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils.
- Elaine Scarry. On Beauty and Being Just.
- Shakespeare. Macbeth.
- Kathleen Hall Jamieson. Eloquence in an Electronic Age: The Transformation of Political Speechmaking.
- James A. Herrick. The History and Theory of Rhetoric.
- Kennedy & Gioia. Backpack Literature.
7 comments:
That question sounds just like Kirby. And it's so true.
I love reading lists of other people's books. Oddly, I was particularly fascinated by the book on Kansas geology. I kind of want to read it!
My book didn't make your list--how sad. Not that you need to be reading student fiction on your sabbatical, but you really should take a look at it someday...
Oh, and other than that omission, I think it's a good list!
Kim --
You're absolutely right, of course. And, I did consider bringing your book along. In the end, recognizing that I only had two months in Kansas and that my time would be split between reading & writing, ranching, parenting, and who knows what else, I attempted to cut back on anything that didn't seem to hold some connection to the sabbatical project.
The omission is a serious one.
Kim --
As I was looking through my book bin today, I realized another omission: de Crevecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer. I remember thinking that I needed to add it to my list, and then I completely forgot about it.
We read Crevecouer in my Early American Lit class last semester. I rather enjoyed it - especially the farmer's perspective of Europeans. I think it was probably the only book from that class I halfway enjoyed. I'm definitely not an American lit fan, I've decided.
Oh by the way, if you didn't already read it on my blog, I got in to Baylor and stand a good chance of having a Graduate Assistantship in their Writing Center. They seemed surprised by the fact that I'd been a tutor in a WC at the undergraduate level. :) Yay!
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