Summer 2010- read up to today- entry 5

Tim Wise, White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son- revised and updated edition, 2008- finished
Tricia Rose, The Hip Hop Wars: What We Talk About When We Talk About Hip Hop--and Why it Matters, 2008- up to p. 74
Michael Kimmel, Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men, 2008- up to p. 23

White Like Me proved quite an inspiring and useful memoir that I highly recommend. So far, The Hip Hop Wars is fantastic as well, an ambitious book that fairly assesses arguments about hip hop music and culture for their strengths and weaknesses. Guyland, at least from its introduction, seems that it will be far less revelatory than other literature I've read from Kimmel--specifically the essential essay, "Masculinity as Homophobia."

Summer 2010- read up to today- entry 1

Summer is here, and I have a lot I want to read. Here is what I have read in the last two days.

bell hooks- "Back to Black: Ending Internalized Racism" (in Outlaw Culture: Resisting Representations, originally published 1994)
David Hajdu- "The Music of Starbucks" (in Heroes and Villains: Essays on Music, Movies, Comics, and Culture, 2009)
Greil Marcus- "Sly Stone: The Myth of Staggerlee" (in Mystery Train, originally published 1975)

I hope to have made a gigantic cumulative reading list by August 20 or so, perhaps to expand my sense of oppositional cultural literacy (if such a thing can exist, which is unlikely).

If interested in what I have to say about specific readings, feel free to comment.