This week, you are to choose one of the following titles. You will be responsible for reading this book and presenting a review to the class (perhaps utilizing an iPad app) at the end of this semester. Specifically, you should discuss how the book relates to our class discussions so far, and what the book offers us in terms of questions or problems that we might follow up on, next semester.
To 'claim' a book, leave a comment below this post with your choice.
Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, Henry Jenkins
The Dumbest Generation, Mark Bauerlein
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Neil Postman
The Culture of Narcissism, Christopher Lasch
The Shallows, Nicholas Carr
The Book is Dead (Long Live the Book), Sherman Young
From Gutenberg to Google: Electronic Representations of Literary Texts, Peter L. Shillingsburg
Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print, Jay David Bolter
Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace, Janet Murray
The Economics of Attention: Style and Substance in the Age of Information, Richard Lanham
Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary, N. Katherine Hayles
Hamlet's Blackberry: Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Practical Philosophy for Building a Good Life in the Digital Age, William Powers
The Late Age of Print: Everyday Book Culture from Consumerism to Control, Ted Striphas
Program or be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age, Douglas Rushkoff
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Hmm. I'm not sure we can edit your post to add our own names in; I just spent some time trying to figure out how to and the edit menu is a barrier. We can view drafts and posts, but I don't believe we can edit others. I'm going to claim The Shallows, though, since I've already gotten about halfway into it (as an e-book, no less).
ReplyDeleteSo: The Shallows, Nicolas Carr - Andrew Maxwell
The Culture of Narcissism-Holly Combs
ReplyDeleteAlso, how do you make things bold?
I'll take on Hamlet on the Holodeck
ReplyDeleteHamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narratives in Cyberspace- Chris Langer
The Dumbest Generation -- Jeffrey Muir
ReplyDeleteDear Jeffrey,
ReplyDeleteJust bought and read this a couple of weeks ago; if you'd rather not buy it, you're welcome to borrow it from me - cjbowers9@gmail.com.
Christopher Bowers
I'll take "Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology, Neil Postman"
ReplyDeleteThe Dumbest Generation, Marx Bauerlein ...or...since Jeff is interested...
ReplyDeleteThe Book is Dead (Long Live the Book), Sherman Young - Cait Smith
I'll take The Late Age of Print - Elle Dougherty
ReplyDeleteConvergence Culture etc.-- Amelie Daigle
ReplyDeleteI'll take Hamlet's Blackberry -- Kalee Eason
ReplyDeleteI'll take Electronic Literature by N. Katherine Hayle, at least until I find something better independently.
ReplyDelete-Terra
Terra, stick with the Hayles book. If the 13th person wants to propose a book before we do, that's fine. But all the others are firm.
ReplyDeleteI'll take the Economics of Attention.
ReplyDeleteJonas G- Program or be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age, Douglas Rushkoff
ReplyDeleteI would like to propose the book, Create Your Own Economy: The Path To Prosperity in a Disordered World by Tyler Cowen. While the title might make it sound like an infantile self help book, the work actually focuses on behavioral economics in the digital age in regards to the way we have come to categorize information. Below are reviews. If this is not acceptable, then Writing Space by Bolter sounds enticing.
ReplyDeleteFrom Publishers Weekly
In this provocative study of behavioral economics, Cowen (Discover Your Inner Economist) reveals that autistic tendencies toward classification, categorization and specialization can be used as a vehicle for understanding how people use information. Cowen spends a great deal of time dispelling autism's societal stigma, arguing that mainstream society is reaping benefits from mimicking autistic cognitive strengths. As stimulating as is the premise, the book often feels like its own long exercise in categorization, with each chapter an analysis of the human mania for classification (e.g., the obsession with ranking achievements and endeavors). According to Cowen, human brains are constantly absorbing bits of information that get smaller and are delivered faster as technology advances. The more information people receive, the more they crave—this shorter attention span is far from a flaw to the author, but a liberating mechanism that allows humans time to contemplate more ambitious, long-range pursuits. The relentless analysis is occasionally overwhelming, but Cowen's illustration of our neurological filing system may help readers understand the mass consumption of information and just about everything else. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
"Only a mind like Tyler Cowen's could weave Facebook, Zen Buddhism, Sherlock Holmes, and so much more into a coherent and compelling argument. Create Your Own Economy will change the way you think about thinking."
-Daniel H. Pink, author of A Whole New Mind
"Create Your Own Economy will open your mind to thinking differently. The unique thought processes of individuals on the autism spectrum provide a great value to our world. This book will help you to be smart and successful in your own way."
-Temple Grandin, author of Thinking in Pictures
"If you're curious about where society and the economy are headed, you'll search in vain for anyone with more interesting insights than Tyler Cowen. He's a genuine visionary and Create Your Own Economy is a tour de force."
-Robert H. Frank, author of The Economic Naturalist and Professor of Economics at Cornell University
"The modern world bombards us with data just begging to be organized, from iPod playlists to digital vacation photos. Tyler Cowen offers an entertaining tour of our information age, pondering implications for how creative we are, how long our attention span is, how our politics work, and the future of our economy."
-Samuel R. Sommers, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Tufts University
Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print - Jay David Bolter
ReplyDelete