What Should I Read Next?

15 October 2008

The University of Virginia Press has published a book, What Should I Read Next?: 70 University of Virginia Professors Recommend Readings in History, Politics, Literature, Math, Science, Technology, the Arts, and More edited by Jessica Feldman and Robert Stilling, University of Virginia Press, 2008.

The premise of the book is to collect essays from UVa professors that introduce their field to a general audience by recommending five books to read about it. I contributed an essay on computer science, How Computing Changes Thinking [HTML, PDF, 4 pages]. Here’s the blurb for the book:

What Should I Read Next? taps seventy University of Virginia professors in an array of fields for suggestions on how to satisfy this nagging intellectual curiosity. Each contributor recommends five titles that speak to their area of inquiry, providing both a general introduction and commentary on each selection. The results read like a series of personal tutorials: Larry Sabato considers how political power is acquired, used, and held onto; climatologist Robert E. Davis provides a timely navigation of global-warming literature; and Michael Levenson offers five ways to approach James Joyce’s Ulysses. Other topics include how computing changes thinking, the life and afterlife of slavery, understanding cities, and ecstatic poetry. The entries convey the contributors’ expertise but also, more importantly, the enthusiasm, the original kernels of curiosity, that drew these scholars to their life’s work.

Designed for the lifelong learner who wants to branch out from his or her own profession or discipline, these explorations–of art, science, history, technology, politics, and much more–offer an inspiring place to start.

UVa Today has an article about the book: Faculty Reading Recommendations May Guide Book Lovers, Oct 14, 2008.