Saturday, October 24, 2009

Sunday Blog Edition

It has been a good week here, beginning on Sunday, when Matt McLennan reviewed, from Verso's Revolutions series, Simon Bolivar and the Bolivarian Revolution, and Jason Smith discussed the origins of sustained growth. On Monday, Jose Saramago called the Bible a manual of bad morals. Tuesday I posted a reading list, and on Thursday I reviewed Roberto Bolano's The Skating Rink. It's actually the first review I've ever written about a work of fiction. Then, later that afternoon Matt shockingly revealed that his mom is reading Alain Badiou's The Century. Which is a worthy read in my humble opinion.

Finally, on Friday, I posted my first lecture on Schelling. I can't say how the class felt about it, but they now know what speculative philosophy is like. The second part will be up on Tuesday.

Until then, it's time for the Sunday review. This week is a special edition, dedicated to the blogs I read. To tell you the truth, it's not that many, and they don't usually talk about book reviews. One is the Tao of Stieb (written by a friend of mine), which is dedicated to all things Toronto Blue Jays, (and I'm no Jays fan...) and the other is Doc Nagel's All-new Life and Times. Doc is currently a prof at CSU Stanislaus, and he directed an independent study for a few of us, many years ago, about Hegel. I don't know what happened to the other two students, but something tells me that they didn't write their dissertations on German idealism. I also read Verso's blog to keep up on the news about their books. Here's a link to each:
  • Doc Nagel talks the politics of CSU Stanislaus, and that public universities are a good thing.
  • Tao of Stieb, from a few months ago, talking about the depressing state of baseball journalism. It includes a damn cool photo.
  • And Verso discussing how their sales have increased 33% in the first half of 2009. Part of their success is attributable to books like this one.
  • Occasionally, I also look at the Ottawa Film Review.
  • And, one review: David Hadju reviews R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis in the New York Times, even if the last paragraph reveals how Hadju misunderstands Crumb.
And, what is more important, is I want to know what other people are reading. Let me know in the comments.

2 comments:

Tao of Stieb said...

You know, I barely remember half the posts I write, so I had to go re-read my own post!

Thanks for the link. I owe you tasty beverage.

D. Shaw said...

To think, I found that at random.