My Reading Habit

Someone asked me some questions about my reading habits yesterday. I surely have thought about them now and then, but at the same time, I tend not to think about what I am reading and why (even as that cuts against good grad student practice). Rather, I follow my interests. 

But in order to answer the questions asked of me, I assembled every book that I am currently reading, where "currently reading" means that sometime in the last month I have been reading it and that I have not given up and consigned it to the shelves as something that I might get back to. It also means (this may be obvious) that I have not finished reading it (as with Schwartz & Begley's book that i posted about yesterday). There are eight titles here...

Richard Totman's THE THIRD SEX

This is pretty good but only if I forget about how fabulously interesting Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes by Don Kulick was. I stalled when some other book looked more immediately engaging, but chances are I'll finish this one before another month goes by. 

Mark Solms' and Oliver Turnbull's THE BRAIN AND THE INNER WORLD

I just started this two days ago. This is neuroscience + psychoanalysis, or neuropsychoanalysis. I am curious to see how this plays out, but also have my skeptical glasses on.

Jean-Michel Quinodoz's READING FREUD; A CHRONOLOGICAL EXPLORATION OF FREUD'S WRITINGS

This is a handy book. I'd love to have been able to take Quinodoz's three year course on the entire Standard Edition, but he isn't at GSU and no one would let him teach that here. This is nearly a textbook and does not cover everything in the SE, but it is interesting to see what he highlights are the most important milestones and while I now and again do not entirely agree with his opinions about certain matters, the man obviously knows his stuff very well. 

Bhante Gunaratana's MINDFULNESS IN PLAIN ENGLISH

I already know Vipassana meditation, I practiced it for some time back in my 20s. But as I am trying to get back into the practice again, I thought I'd get this book as a refresher. It's a quick read and I am almost done with it now. [On a side note, the idea that I would ever utter a phrase like "I'm trying to become more mindful" makes me want to hit myself, hard, repeatedly - feel free to apply that rule to me should I ever say something so full-of-shit sounding]

Levi Bryant's THE DEMOCRACY OF OBJECTS

I read through several chapters (with one out of order, for a reason, but still, that sometimes throws me off) and will get back to it, I got sidetracked when I went to NC a few weeks back. What I read was pretty great though.

The Mount Sinai School of Medicine's TOTAL NUTRITION: THE ONLY GUIDE YOU'LL EVER NEED

At 800 pages or so, I'll likely never read this entire book. But, the opening three chapters "The Basics of Healthy Eating" was more interesting than I had expected and I read the chapter on "Dietary Fiber" which was also useful to me. Chances are I will never crack the chapters on nutrition for blood disorders or kidney disease, but it still seems like a useful book to have around. Did you know that Vitamin C tablets include only half of the balanced Vitamin C you get from an orange or grapefruit? They have only ascorbic acid and that isn't enough, ergo you piss it out later. & did you know that studies of the health of those who eat well and take no vitamins or supplements vs those who eat well and take them religiously indicates that the health impact of supplement is zero? 

Gerd Gigerenzer's GUT FEELINGS, THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS

This is an odd book. I am not done yet and I could imagine setting it aside and forgetting about it. Though the author uses words like "unconscious" and even "superego" there is nothing psychoanalytic about this at all. His real topic is "gut feelings" or "intuitions", particularly those which strike you quickly and those things which we know how to do but cannot explain how know how we do. 

An edited collection of poetry by René Char, FUROR AND MYSTERY & OTHER WRITINGS

Super great! I am savoring, with both a bookmark that moves steadily forward and the option to browse around and reread or look ahead. At this rate I may spend another few months on this book.

Markos Zafiropoulos' LACAN AND LÉVI-STRAUSS, OR THE RETURN TO FREUD (1951-1957)

Not sure why I started this and I may shelve it (or rather close it, as I have this electronically) but before I do my comps the chances are that I will read this just to help flesh out early Lacan's debts to Levi-Strauss and structuralist thought.

So, there you have my reading habit - if that is, I exclude stuff I read online, as news, on blogs or in magazines and journals - and I am bracketing the poetry that I read every Wednesday night at the weekly APG meet.