What I read in 2012

Hello readers, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season. Jen, Winston and I had a lovely season – one about which I will share more in another post. As it’s now 2013, and the official time for best of/looking back posts, I thought I’d share what I read in 2012, as I have in the past (with varying success). As I mentioned last year, I started tracking my reading with Goodreads, to my delight in writing this post! Here's a photo:



And you can click the photo for more details about what I read this year. In brief, I read 38 books last year, which is far less than I would like to have read, but it was three books a month. I read 12,725 pages overall, and this is not counting our periodicals. The longest book I read was The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now edited by Harold Holzer. So, without further ado, here are the 38 books I read in 2012. Check back next week for my top 5 books from last year!

1. Rembrandt's Eyes
   Schama, Simon
   Jan 26, 2012



2. Makers of Modern Architecture: From Frank Lloyd Wright to Frank Gehry
   Filler, Martin
   Feb 02, 2012



3. Louis Kahn: Essential Texts
   Kahn, Louis I.
   Feb 11, 2012



4. Thomas Eakins: Art, Medicine, and Sexuality in Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia
   Werbel, Amy
   Feb 26, 2012



5. Logotopia: The Library in Architecture, Art and the Imagination
   Klant, Diane
   Mar 2012



6. The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood
   Gleick, James
   Mar 14, 2012



7. The American Future: A History
   Schama, Simon
   Mar 31, 2012



8. Pure Drivel
   Martin, Steve
   Mar 31, 2012



9. The Night Bookmobile
   Niffenegger, Audrey
   Mar 31, 2012



10. Books: A Living History
    Lyons, Martyn
    Apr 2012



11. The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now
    Holzer, Harold
    Apr 14, 2012



12. Light in Architecture and Art : The Work of Dan Flavin
    Bell, Tiffany
    Apr 15, 2012



13. The Art of Raising a Puppy
    Skete, Monks of New
    May 25, 2012



14. How to Be Your Dog's Best Friend: The Classic Manual for Dog Owners
    Skete, Monks of New
    May 28, 2012



15. The Passage of Power (The Years of Lyndon Johnson, #4)
    Caro, Robert A.
    Jun 14, 2012



16. Hark! A Vagrant
    Beaton, Kate
    Jun 15, 2012



17. Joan Mitchell: Lady Painter
    Albers, Patricia
    Jun 16, 2012



18. Never Learn Anything From History
    Beaton, Kate
    Jun 19, 2012



19. Just My Type: A Book About Fonts
    Garfield, Simon
    Jul 04, 2012



20. Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean
    Wolk, Douglas
    Jul 18, 2012



21. The Well-Made Book: Lectures by Daniel Berkeley Updike
    Updike, Daniel Berkeley
    Jul 19, 2012



22. Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer
    Gorey, Edward
    Jul 21, 2012



23. Horoscopes for the Dead
    Collins, Billy
    Jul 24, 2012



24. Call for the Dead (George Smiley, #1)
    Carré, John le
    Aug 03, 2012
    



25. A Murder of Quality (George Smiley, #2)
    Carré, John le
    Aug 06, 2012



26. The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (George Smiley #3)
    Carré, John le
    Aug 09, 2012



27. The Looking Glass War (George Smiley, #4)
    Carré, John le
    Aug 20, 2012



28. London: A Social History
    Porter, Roy
    Aug 20, 2012



29. Mellon: An American Life
    Cannadine, David
    Sep 19, 2012
    



30. A Wilderness of Error: The Trials of Jeffrey MacDonald
    Morris, Errol
    Sep 24, 2012



31. Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York
    Gopnik, Adam
    Sep 26, 2012



32. Thomas Eakins
    Goodrich, Lloyd
    Oct 28, 2012



33. Casino Royale (James Bond, #1)
    Fleming, Ian
    Nov 09, 2012



34. Live and Let Die (James Bond, #2)
    Fleming, Ian
    Nov 20, 2012



35. Moonraker (James Bond, #3)
    Fleming, Ian
    Nov 23, 2012



36. Wolf Hall (Wolf Hall, #1)
    Mantel, Hilary
    Dec 06, 2012



37. Zeitoun
    Eggers, Dave
    Dec 09, 2012



38. The American Leonardo: A Tale of Obsession, Art and Money
    Brewer, John
    Dec 20, 2012

We Bought Nooks!?

You all probably have an impression that I am a bit of a luddite when it comes to reading. I don’t think this would be an unfair or inaccurate assessment, but perhaps it’s not entirely true anymore. For our anniversary, Jen and I got Nooks.

Week With Winston

This has been a lovely week for us here - I have had the week off from work, and have spent the workweek at home, chauffeuring Jen about, and spending some quality time with Winston. This time with him has been lovely, and there are a few things after spending so much time with him I want to share.

Commute Podcasts

Jen, Winston, and I all live in Fayetteville in the house I imagine you all have read about. Fayetteville is a great town – it’s a college town, and has the feel that we really like. People are friendly and have a different mindset than that of other towns in northwest Arkansas. The downside of this is that I have to commute into work. Now, if this were a nice commute (think light rail/subway) I don’t think I would complain too much. But this being the south with an intense aversion to almost all forms of public transit, I must drive to work.

Four Months Later...

Hi readers,

If you've found your way back here after our four month hiatus here at the files, welcome back. If you're a new reader, I am glad you are here. In sitting down to write this post, I see it has been far too long since my last post. I thought perhaps I owe it to you all to fill you in on some of the happenings around here at the files...

Reading in our Home

One of the joys of our new home is reading. I’ve read two lengthy nonfiction books since we moved in - and that is with the work we have done to get everything in the house usable and accessible. Just about the time we were moving in, I heard a piece on Fresh Air on NPR about habits and how we form them. According to the author, the times when we can form new habits are times of major change - birth of a child, or moving. With this in mind, I have been making a special effort to create a reading habit in our new home.

Long Form and the Tablet

By my count, it has been a bit over a month since posting here at The Dean Files, and it's nice to be back. My hiatus was prompted by Jen and I buying and moving into our first home in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I know Jen will want to tell you all about that, but here's a photo from a couple of weeks ago of our new living room:



On my commute into work today, I was listening to a story about The New Republic on Morning Edition. Chris Hughes, one of the founders of Facebook purchased that nearly century-old magazine, and hopes to use it to re inspire reading long-form writing and journalism. A couple of things piqued my interest that he mentioned. Hughes seems to think that there is a real lack of that kind of reporting out there, and that The New Republic will be one of a few in a vastly under served market. Also, that tablet computers are the best new way to consume long-form writing.

His implication that his newly purchased magazine will fill a void of long-form, insightful writing and journalism just does not hold water. I subscribe to two paragons of this genre - The New Yorker, and The New York Review of Books. It's all I can do to keep up with these two, but I am tempted by the wiles of Mother Jones, The Atlantic, and Harper's about every three months. Those are five magazines that regularly publish long-form works that I can name off the top of my head, and I am sure there are many more out there. I am curious to see how TNR will establish itself in a niche that is already fairly full.

However, what bothered me more than Hughes' assertion that TNR will be the only publication in this niche was his statement that the tablet is uniquely well-suited to reading long-form periodical writing. It makes little difference to me what people choose to read from - a book, a Nook, an iPad, or a Kindle, but making this statement with Hughes' reasoning bothered me. This was his reasoning:

And he sees a growing ability to connect long-form journalism to digital users, thanks to tablets that allow users to "pause, linger, read and process very important ideas."

As someone who has used a tablet to read long-form journalism, I take strong objection to this argument. Indeed, in an article published this week in The New York Times, some cogent and insightful thoughts were shared on just this very topic - reading on a tablet/ereader. To quote from that article:

Can you concentrate on Flaubert when Facebook is only a swipe away, or give your true devotion to Mr. Darcy while Twitter beckons?

People who read e-books on tablets like the iPad are realizing that while a book in print or on a black-and-white Kindle is straightforward and immersive, a tablet offers a menu of distractions that can fragment the reading experience, or stop it in its tracks.

As someone who has used both - I really still prefer the print version of a magazine for long-form journalism and writing. I read the Times on my iPhone in the mornings, but for anything longer than that, I think that the print version just cannot be beat. I think my coworkers ask for my read copies of The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books for that same reason - to read in print that which (for the most part) can be accessed online or in tablet format.

Library Day in the Life: Day 5

Readers, this is my final post for the Library Day in the Life, Round 8 project. As you can imagine, Friday was a day with all sorts of different tasks to accomplish, and I have even included some more photos as it's Friday.

Library Day in the Life: Day 4

I am a day late on this, the fourth installment of my Library Day in the Life project this week. It was a busy day yesterday, and I am excited to tell you about it. I am slightly altering my list format from last time, and I will try to include approximate times.

Library Day in the Life: Day 3

Well, it's my third post this week of Library Day in the Life and today has by far been the busiest for me. And, rather than some repetitive narrative for my day, how about a list to change things up.

Library Day in the Life: Day 2

As I stated yesterday, I am participating in Library Day in the Life, Round 8. Today is much more quiet than yesterday, as Tuesday is our "dark day" at the museum. This provided me an opportunity to do something a bit different with my day today.

Library Day in the Life: Day 1

Well, readers, from now until the Friday, I am doing my best to participate in the Library Day in the Life, Round 8.

Here’s the brief about the project, taken from their website:

The Month of Letters

Readers, you probably know all too well by now our penchant for letters at the Dean house - we try and write a couple each weekend. I have started replying to personal emails (if I have not replied during the week) with a letter so that I spend a bit less time in front of a screen. Jen and I usually write at least one postcard or letter to a friend or family member. However, I feel as though I might "step up my game" in the letter writing department and a challenge posted recently online prompted me to commit to writing 24 letters in the month of February. If you'd like to participate with me, send me your address (email, twitter, facebook, etc) and I'll put you in line for a letter! It might be on fun paper, might be long or short, but either way I will hand-write a letter to you. Also, we have fun stamps to put on the envelopes as well!

Colleagues

2011 was a year in which I met and maintained professional relationships with many people I am proud to know. Writing about mail last week set me to thinking about what I have learned about making contacts (but more personal than that) with colleagues inside and outside your profession. I think this has become very important for both Jen and myself, and I feel as though we are much better at meeting people and initiating relationships than we once were. So, indulge me as I share five brief thoughts I have after meeting some great people and making new relationships within my profession.

The Power of Mail

The holiday season (which is just about over as of this writing) is quite the time for mail. Holiday cards and letters, thank-you notes, and packages filled with presents. It’s amusing, then, that it appears that the postal service is ending next-day delivery and shuttering many of its locations across the US. Of course, as pointed out recently in The New Yorker, the rise of email and other forms of electronic communication are largely to blame.

Still, receiving a piece of mail is far more exciting than an email or an “@” mention in a tweet. Our many holiday cards on our mantle reminded me of this, and set me to thinking about why “analog” mail is such a joy to receive.

2011 Books in Brief

Remember last year when I posted all about what books I read, when, and what I thought of them? That was really great, wasn’t it? I started 2011 fully intending on doing another series like that, but, well, it didn’t happen. As you know too well by now, Jen and I moved to Arkansas, and we both started new jobs. That said, we certainly did not stop reading. I think overall our reading pace slowed some, but overall, things were about the same. Except for keeping track of the books!

Well, instead of a series of posts about what I read this year, (and lacking a list) allow me to point out some highlights from my reading this year.



And here they are, in reverse order:

• James Turrell: The Wolfsburg Project I love Turrell and the piece he did in Wolfsburg. And, it came with a cool bookmark!



• Baseball : a literary anthology Of course, this was mixed - some pieces were great, and others were not as great. Still, one of the best books I read this year!



• The Island of the Colorblind Jen and I both love the writing of Oliver Sacks. This is one of his older titles, but it’s still great!



• Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865 I finally finished Lincoln’s collected writings, and true to form, this second volume of later writings was much better than his first. It was interesting to see his development as a writer, and how great stress and responsibility improved his writing.



• Print the Legend: Photography and the American West I will freely admit that this is a surprising best book choice for 2011. It ties together almost all of my interests and passions, though - American history, photography, books, and printing. Sandweiss’ writing style is quite readable, but it is certainly a serious study of photography and its impact on our perceptions of what the West is, and the native and non-native cultures within it.

So, there you have it. I apologize for not keeping good track of the books I have read this year, and I have a plan in place to rectify this. Namely, my Goodreads profile.

I have started tracking what I have read, and what is in my reading queue now, and I will give it my best effort to keep it current and updated. If you are on Goodreads, please add me as a friend (as this makes it much more fun for everyone) and if you are not, consider signing up and add me as a friend.

That said, I would love to hear about any books you really enjoyed this year. Have a great 2012!!

Dickson Street Bookshop

It’s a little hard to believe that Jen and I have lived in northwest Arkansas for just under a year. It has been quite a year indeed for us, but more about that in another post. For now, let me share with you one of the places in Fayetteville that we loved, and still love going to: the Dickson Street Bookshop.

Twenty Favorites

One of the benefits of working in an art museum is having an art collection just a few steps away that one can enjoy during the course of the work day, or while visiting as a guest after working hours. Supporting research of the art (both artists, works, and supporting themes) requires a basic working knowledge of the collection. I would argue that this basic working knowledge includes not just facts on a sheet, but spending time with the works in the collection on the walls. I feel strongly that a reproduction is a poor substitute to the actual item, and that this holds especially true for artworks. The nuances of paint and brushstrokes, perspective, and small detail all escape even the best reproduction.

With this in mind, I have spent a reasonable amount of time with the art in the galleries at the museum. I am also hopng that you good readers might come visit some day, and in this hope and with my experience being among these artworks, I want to share with you my favorite 20 items from the collection, in the order in which they appear in the galleries. Some are simply listed, but others have some information taken from the collection catalog.

A Bibliographic Framework for the Digital Age: My Take

At one of my committee meetings at the University of Arkansas this week, I was asked to give a brief overview of the document shared by the Library of Congress, titled A Bibliographic Framework for the Digital Age. I begin this post with my cover note, and then pick up with the thoughts I shared with the committee and want to share with you, reader. If you have any comments about the report, or my opinions about it, I would love to hear from you!

Cataloging Nursery Catalogs

Readers, I have been working on this paper about cataloging nursery catalogs for the past few weeks, and I think I am ready to share it. I would love to hear your feedback! (PS - thanks to Jen and Penny Baker for their help!) The paper is below the jump!