Books of 2011
Dec. 31st, 2011 14:49![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ahorbinskiI read 88 books from cover to cover this year. The total would be a lot more if I counted the books that I read most of for my seminars, but that seems like cheating to me, so I don't. In any case, out of all the academic and non-fiction books I read, there were two clear standouts.
Both of these books are, or deserve to be, classics in the field, and I am passionately convinced that they have a lot to say even to people who don't work on Japanese history. Driscoll's book in particular falls squarely into the current paradigm of "literary scholars writing brilliantly on Empire without much literature," and ought to reach a large audience. Berry's book is clearly written enough that even a non-specialist should be able to get through most of it fairly easily, and it amply repays the effort.
A Happy (and productive) 2012 to all. I'm hoping to read more in the new year, as always.
- Mary Elizabeth Berry, The Culture of Civil War in Kyoto
- Mark Driscoll, Absolute Erotic, Absolute Grotesque
Both of these books are, or deserve to be, classics in the field, and I am passionately convinced that they have a lot to say even to people who don't work on Japanese history. Driscoll's book in particular falls squarely into the current paradigm of "literary scholars writing brilliantly on Empire without much literature," and ought to reach a large audience. Berry's book is clearly written enough that even a non-specialist should be able to get through most of it fairly easily, and it amply repays the effort.
A Happy (and productive) 2012 to all. I'm hoping to read more in the new year, as always.