Reading about Reading

The Chronicle has this article about the state of reading and the NEA' s newest report, To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence. There's a lot that I find interesting and on point in this article. In the interest of brevity, I'll say that what I found most intriguing (aside from Thomas Jefferson's apparently famous lazy susan for books, of course) was Kirschenbaum's point that accounts of reading must be historically specific, taking into account new forms of literacy that surface with new kinds of "texts."

Prepping for the interviews

It's the time of year for advice on the job interviews. (I'm guessing advice on the campus visits starts exploding around January. It's a sure way to drive blog traffic.) In any case, Tenured Radical has a good piece up on interviews.

More, more, more

Scott McLemee asks around about the best academic blogs.

Chronicle article on social science PhD's

If I can find some time later, I'll pull out more of the interesting things I found in this Chronicle article about a study of recent PhD's in the social sciences. For now, I'll say that I don't see much here that doesn't apply to humanities PhD programs as well. The article quotes this line from the report: "Career preparation should begin at the beginning of a doctoral program."