"Reader" by Underpuppy, courtesy of Flickr.com/Creative Commons.
Recently I asked students in my Media & Society class what they were reading outside of textbooks and other books assigned by their instructors. In addition to the Twilight series and Harry Potter, the list of books included “Life of Pi” by Yann Martel, Maya Angelou’s “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” and “The Fountainhead” by Ayn Rand.
So I thought I’d share what I’m reading. At any one time I’ve usually got about a half-dozen books going. I typically go from book to book and finish a couple of them each month. Most of them are non-fiction, focusing either on journalism, new media or marketing.
This week I finished “Crush It!” by Gary Vaynerchuk. I re-read this guide to marketing and personal branding as part of a project with one of my colleagues at LBCC, as well as a way to refresh some of my own efforts, including overhauling my personal blog. (You’re seeing the results here.)
Vaynerchuk is the YouTube wine guy who once extolled the virtues of pairing just the right wine with Cap’n Crunch cereal, which he considers the “single greatest product ever produced in the world.” He also recommended wines to serve with Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Lucky Charms!
I’m almost done with “Caverns,” the collaborative adventure story written by one of the late Ken Kesey‘s writing classes at the University of Oregon. I bought it when it first was published 20 years ago, but didn’t get all the way through it then. Too bad. It’s a good read.
I was reminded of this novel by a recent story in the Oregonian about a Portland writing group. One of the members of the group, Lidia Yuknavitch, was among Kesey’s students.
I’m also starting to dive deeper into “The Death and Life of American Journalism” by Robert McChesney and John Nichols. These guys show up from time to time in videos and other material for Media & Society, including a PBS video based largely on the book.
In the book they explore the financial problems facing newspapers and the rest of the media, as well as the general decline of journalism in the 21st century. This decline, they suggest, poses dangers to democracy and our American way of life. I can’t say that I disagree. That’s why I’m looking forward to reading this one, and maybe even finishing it before my journalism classes resume this fall.
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