The Nerd I Am: Books in Europe

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So, this post needs a bit of an introduction (short, I promise). Last summer, I went to Berkeley, CA for an internship at The Warren Institute (UCB School of Law). As a typical nerd and book lover, I bought a box of books with me. It costs me about $30 to ship in there, and another $30 to ship it back. Many of these books were on topics for my dissertation idea at the time. I brought so many books that I swore I wouldn't buy any there. That plan failed. I bought 15 or so books from local used bookstores. I couldn't help it.

And I was angry at myself as I bought the books, because I knew I didn't really have the space for more books. But I just couldn't pass up on these deals. Much of these books were also for my dissertation topic at the time. I also couldn't pass up some old Talcott Parsons and Marx books, which have nothing to do with my dissertation.

Anyways, I say all this to say that I learned my lesson: Don't bring books on long trips. On this trip, I brought with me 10 books -- all having to do with my class or my current research. Three of them are methodology books (Rabe-Hesketh and Skrondal; Raudenbush and Bryk; Long); six of them are on the science/sociology of race/ethnicity (Graves; Zuberi; Zuberi and Bonilla-Silva; Lucas; Goldberg; Montagu); and one is general sociological theory (Stinchcombe).

With this trip, I promised myself not to buy any books. I figured there wouldn't be much to buy anyways. Two months in, I am seven books heavier (not counting my many language/travel guides). One was donated to me (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn). Two are derivatives of one of my favorite TV show -- Dexter (Jeff Lindsay's Dexter by Design and Komm Zuruck, Meine Dunkler Bruder (Come Back, My Darker Brother)). Yes, one of them is in German, and yes, I am trying to read it. Two others are art books I picked up in Italy -- Design for Obama (pictured below) and Africa Is In Style -- both are in English. The last two are literary books -- Richard Powers' The Time of Our Singing and A Collection of Flannery O'Connor writings -- both in English.




For a long time, I really only bought sociological books and poetry. Very little fiction. Europe has given me the space to shed my sociological skin. Primarily because I always have my public sociological eyes on here, trying to (over-)analyze things and whatnot. All the books I've gotten here are pleasure books. I was just so tickled by the fact that there were Dexter books that I just had to buy it. And the two literary books were 2 euros each...how could I pass that up?! The Italian books are my souvenirs from Milano.

In any case, I don't read much outside of my manuscripts and sociological articles. So, I doubt any of these books will be read while I am here. But I've had a lifelong goal of having a room full of books -- top to bottom, wall to wall. I have about a wall full of books now.

To expanding!
AAS

Note: This is a retroactive post.

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