Week one
- Monday, Jan. 3rd: Reflecting on your personal experience of books and reading.
- Tuesday, Jan. 4th: The psychology of reading for pleasure. For today, read Spufford (via Moodle), New Scientist (via Moodle), and Telegraph article.
- Wednesday, Jan. 5th: Reading and gender; reading and class. For today, read Brooks (via Moodle); Docx, and Miller . By the end of the day, have 3 books chosen to read and checked out, ordered via interlibrary loan, or obtained by other means.
- Thursday, Jan. 6th: Kinds of reading, kinds of books – zines, graphic novels, etc. For today, read the first chapter of Scott McCloud’s Zot! Online and Duncombe (via Moodle).
- Friday, Jan. 7th: Reports on campus reading survey; plan group fieldwork projects. For today, bring five completed surveys so that we can compile and discuss the results.
Week two
- Monday, Jan. 10th: History of books and their place in culture.
- Tuesday, Jan. 11th: Libraries, culture, and democracy. For today, read the Library Bill of Rights, Tisdale (via Moodle) and Goodman.
- Wednesday, Jan. 12th: Is reading at risk? For today, skim NEA report executive summary and read counter-arguments – Kaplan and Price. First book review due (submitted as a Word document via Moodle).
- Thursday, Jan. 13th: Oprah’s book club; popular literature versus the literary. For today, skim Striphas (via Moodle) and choose one section to read more carefully and discuss in class.
- Friday, Jan. 14th: The social nature of books and reading.
Week three
- Monday, Jan. 17th: Where books come from; for today, visit it the website of an author you like and see if you can learn about his/her writing process and how he or she first got published. Take notes and be prepared to discuss what you learned in class. At some point this week, stop by the Book Mark and browse the non-textbook book section. NOTE: we will meet from 1:30 to 2:20 today so that everyone can attend the MLK day speaker.
- Tuesday, Jan. 18th: The book publishing industry and the perspective of a bookseller; for today, read Kachka and “Local Bookstores Fall to ‘E-Book Revolution.”
- Wednesday, Jan. 19th: Guest speaker: Nick Healy, editorial director of Capstone Publishing. For today, take a look at Capstone’s website. Second book review due (submitted as a Word document via Moodle).
- Thursday, Jan. 20th: Design lab; meet in library, e-classroom. For today, browse For the second half of the class, we’ll consider design elements of books – so take a look at 5 in Mind; browse Book Covers Anonymous, Book Design Review, and book jackets at New York Public Library. In class we will watch this video and this series of shorts on fonts.
- Friday, Jan. 21st: Design lab; meet in library, e-classroom.
Week four
- Monday, Jan. 24th: books in the present tense. For today, read LeGuin (via Moodle) and Elberse.
- Tuesday, Jan. 25th: the future of books. For today, read Digital Books and Your Rights: A Checklist; also skim Lethem (and choose one section to read thoroughly).
- Wednesday, Jan. 26th: fieldwork presentations. Third book review due (submitted as a Word document via Moodle).
- Thursday, Jan. 27th: project day: bring your work in progress for workshopping.
- Friday, Jan. 28th: present your final projects in the library
