Reading Week Topic Suggestions

November 28, 2005 6:25 AM

I need suggestions on topics for a reading week.

Every so often, when I have a chunk of time off from work, I have a reading week. I pick a different topic each day, and spend the whole day reading up on that topic (books, articles, websites, etc.). Past topics have included biotech business, issues faced by university trustees, African debt relief, naval warfare strategy, voice over IP, space colonization... Well, you get the idea. There's no overriding theme for a week, just for the individual days, and I love looking at an exceptionally wide range of topics.

I have 10 days off from work at the holidays, and need suggestions for topics for those days. Bonus points for suggested readings (books, articles, websites, specific authors or experts, etc.). My only request is no fiction suggestions, even if it is really well written, or based in fact.

Thanks!

posted by NotMyselfRightNow to grab bag (9 comments total)

Corporate codes of conduct, their use by multinationals corporations, their effectiveness. I've been writing a research paper on this and although I'm way past sick of the topic at this point, it is pretty interesting and current.
posted by amro at 6:37 AM on November 28, 2005

multinational, not multinationals
posted by amro at 6:38 AM on November 28, 2005

Expert systems or artificial neural nets. The former if you're more into computer science stuff and the latter if you're more into cognitive science stuff, although they're both (really interesting imho) mixtures of the two.
posted by moift at 6:54 AM on November 28, 2005

what about a programming language?
posted by chuckforthought.com at 7:55 AM on November 28, 2005

I'll put in three near and dear to my heart:

Seamanship, represented by The Annapolis Book of Seamanship,

simple primer on Cryptology, The Code Book,

and something on critical theory and technology, such as The Digital Dialectic (or anything by George Landow).
posted by tetsuo at 8:04 AM on November 28, 2005

biotech, including GM foods, and developing nations

DRM fights in media

refugees and migrants, and how countries deal with them

urban planning/megacities
(and Mike Davis stuff related to it)
posted by amberglow at 8:18 AM on November 28, 2005

Pornography in American society. You could read a wide range of feminist and anti-feminist viewpoints. I just read "Pornofied" and it was very interesting. "Female Chauvinist Pigs" was interesting but a very light read.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:24 AM on November 28, 2005 [1 favorite]

The topics you list are slanted towards political and economic issues. It might be fun to take a step back and read about current theories of primate social behavior.

Frans de Waal is the place to start. You can read Chimpanzee Politics for the Machiavellian view and Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape for the hippie view of where human social behavior comes from. The Ape and the Sushi Master is a more speculative book about the debate over whether primates have "cultures" and whether they have any relation to human culture.

Or you can spend an entire day reading Edge, and get enough ideas for three more reading weeks.
posted by fuzz at 11:00 AM on November 28, 2005

I'd suggest looking into buying The Complete New Yorker (for which you'll need a DVD drive/player). Their articles cover such a wide range of topics, and the nonfiction pieces are often quite long and in-depth. Great browsing!

Bonus: it's on sale for $70 (orig. $100).
posted by rob511 at 6:41 PM on November 28, 2005