Wool & Words

While Dems in Texas and Ohio are trying to figure out which part of their identity to reward, I have to figure out what to read. Shortly after graduation (seems like AGES ago), I purchased lots of interesting books

From bottom to top:

• Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf
• The New Brain: How the Modern Age Is Rewiring Your Mind by Richard Restak M.D.
• Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide by Henry Jenkins
• The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam by Ann Marie Fleming
• The Bookseller of Kabulby Asne Seierstad
• Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster (this one was actually a graduation gift)
• Nightby Elie Wiesel

I haven't cracked a one of these; how tragic is that? I need to read one or two (at least) before I head off to new employment land. But how to pick?

If I use the punctuation method of selection, then I can easily knock out four of them. Because, really? That colon is the mark of academe to my eyes. My dissertation title has a colon, every paper I've delivered in my graduate career has had a colon, every freaking book I pick up at the library to read has a colon.

You see, everybody poops.

But using the colon method knocks out the Austen adventure, which is most decidedly NOT an academic book; I suppose they wanted to appeal to the Austen-loving academics out there.

I could use the length of the title (Wiesel wins that one) or the feel of the book in the hand (Seierstad is satisfying) or the amount of eye-candy (Fleming, in a landslide). I could use social significance (Seierstad and Jenkins) or learning-something-new (Wolf and Restak) as criteria for selection.

Or I could just pick one up and start reading.

Any thoughts/suggestions? Anyone have experience with any of these?