Will Richardson

Speaker, consultant, writer, learner, parent

Summer Reading List

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Just in case anyone is interested, and because I haven’t posted three times to my blog in one day in a while and I’m feeling a little wacky, here is a short list of what’s on my summer reading list (as if I have any more time in summer than any other part of the year these days.) For some strange reason, I’m on a real book reading jones right now.

Suffice to say, there are other books in my pile that I’m hoping to get to (including a few given to me by network associates) and with the election coming up, there are all sorts of other political titles I’d love to get to. Odds are I won’t make it through most of these, but best intentions…

Btw, I’ll just say it again, if you don’t have Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody on your list, I humbly think you should.

Suggestions for additions?

Comments

  2. Bill Ferriter says

    Hey Will,

    You’re right—-Shirky’s a must read. I finally understand the changes that I’ve been living through and have language to describe those changes when talking to others!

    Here’s a short title that I’d recommend to anyone involved in education:

    Education Myths by Jay Greene

    While not a technology title, I think it’s an important read because it is a caustic attack of public schools filled with distorted truths about what it is we do each day.

    You might have to read it in slow bites so as not to raise your blood pressure too high, but by plugging through this title by an ardent critic of education, you’ll have a better sense for the darts (bombs? bazooka shells? napalm?) that people are throwing at public schools.

    What is it that they say about keeping your friends close?

    Rock on,
    Bill

  3. Andrea Hernandez says

    Thanks for sharing your list.
    Mine, I admit, is going to contain more fiction and some non-edtech titles, as I like to use my short summer break to let my brain cells unwind a bit.
    I think I will have to read Here Comes Everybody. I’ve heard so much about it. I also have on my list The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, an old one (you’ve probably already read it) that I’ve skimmed over but not yet read in its entirety.

    Another book on my list is An Ethic of Excellence, Building a Culture of Craftsmanship in Schools by Ron Berger. Not an “edtech” book per se, but I have been meaning to read this since (cough, cough) before last summer! I have a summary of his teaching principles taped to my desk at work and have used them to guide me in my teaching since I heard about this book two years ago.

    @Bill, much as I respect you, I think I may have to skip your recommendation. I don’t know if my blood pressure can handle any more attacks on education. I’m starting to tire of the good fight.

  4. Laurie Fowler says

    Will,
    Thank you for sharing this list. I always like to see what the “heavy hitters” are reading so I know what to read myself. Here’s my book list(or at least the professional books) for Summer 2008.

    I am reading Influencer as part of Scott McLeod’s online book club. I am also ordering a copy of Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody. I am also hoping to read
    The Learning Game by Michael Barber, Whatever by Mark Treadwell, Five Minds of the Future by Howard Gardner, and
    Wikinomics.

    I also hope to get to Brain Rules this summer.

  5. Ms B says

    My suggestion to expand your summer reading list? Fiction. Because, to burgle a quote from Einstein, “Imagination is more important than knowledge”.

    Also, it’s fun, and a different kind of adventure that should always be a part of our lives. In any season. It’s good to disconnect from the online world and vanish into a fictional one, engage with the imagination of others through this form.

    Print? Audiobook? Choose what fits in with your summer. I’ll leave the choice of titles to what you find suits your taste in fiction.

  6. Carolyn Foote says

    Will,

    As much as I’d like to take credit for that recommendation, alas, it wasn’t me 😉

    A couple of titles I’m working on–
    The Passionate Learner by Robert Fried
    The Big Picture by Dennis Littky

    And I ordered Here Comes Everybody, so am looking forward to that one arriving.
    The other title I just ran across that sounds up your alley is The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam(about solving problems visually). He has a blog as well, that I discovered recently.

    (and this one doesn’t have the catchiest title but if you’re speaking and working with librarians–I think this book is really important–School Reform and the School Library Media Specialist. )

    And a fun nonfiction title that I have been laughing my way through is The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, Bill Bryson’s autobiography of growing up in the 50’s. Highly amusing!

  9. Chris Lehmann says

    Will,

    You know where I’m going with this… old school:

    School and Society / Child and Curriculum — Dewey
    The Schoolmaster and the Great City — Patri (thanks Gary S.!)
    Teaching as a Subversive Activity — Postman
    Teaching to Transgress — bell hooks
    The Pedagogy of the Opressed — Friere
    Summerhill School — A. S. Neill
    Moral Leadership — Sergiovanni

    Let’s figure out what we’ve known as we try to surmise the future.