what should I read while offline?

November 19, 2008 · 7 comments

in general

Old Books 2I’m dropping offline soon for a couple of weeks on a family vacation. I’m bringing a book or two, but want to stuff some blog posts and articles that I’ve probably neglected onto my iPod for more in-depth reading. I’m planning on using Instapaper to bring offline copies of stuff so I can read it anywhere.

What should I bring? What is the most important article or post that you’d recommend for offline reading? Doesn’t have to be related to education, or technology, or anything in particular.

What would you bring?

{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Scott Leslie November 19, 2008 at 6:42 pm

Great question/idea – crowdsourcing your offline reading list. Here are some longer pieces I’m either working through, ones stuck in open browser windows, classics I’d recommend or ones recently read and enjoyed:

http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2008/11/future-of-online-learning-ten-years-on_16.html
http://elearnspace.org/Articles/systemic_impact.htm
http://blog.ulisesmejias.com/2007/05/04/networked-proximity-full-pdf/
http://www.gardnercampbell.net/blog1/?p=635
http://opencontent.org/blog/archives/655 and it’s response at http://halfanhour.blogspot.com/2008/11/engagement-and-personalized-learning.html

Have a great break, lucky guy!

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2 dnorman November 19, 2008 at 7:01 pm

thanks, scott! I’m grabbing copies of all of them (already had a couple, but am completing the list :-) )

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3 Paul Joseph November 20, 2008 at 2:24 pm
4 Brian November 20, 2008 at 3:17 pm

I was going to suggest the Downes post Scott mentioned… and all the other picks so far are great.

I don’t know about you, but the Reverend Jim is so prolific that sometimes I miss the nuances of what he is writing about. Might be worth archiving some of his longer posts… I know I’ve been missing stuff.

I’ve been periodically reading the Stanza version of Cory Doctorow’s “Little Brother” – so it requires another app, but it’s been an intersting read. It is theoretically geared to teens, so perfect for me.

Political stuff, there is lots of fantastic reading in Tomdispatch, http://www.tomdispatch.com/ And anything by Mike Davis, there or elsewhere.

And if you are going on a cruise ship, you MUST read David Foster Wallace’s take…

http://www.harpers.org/media/pdf/dfw/HarpersMagazine-1996-01-0007859.pdf

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5 dnorman November 20, 2008 at 4:13 pm

Thanks, Paul and Brian! I’ve grabbed those.

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6 Chris Lott November 21, 2008 at 1:07 pm

Actually, I’d recommend the David Foster Wallace collection that includes the essay Brian points to: _A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again_

Add: a collection of Chekhov’s short stories, a couple of Nero Wolfe mysteries, and a big fat fun novel by someone like Michael Chabon and you should be good to go!

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7 Scott Leslie November 21, 2008 at 1:32 pm

And if you want something hot off the presses, this looks like it could be interesting – http://remixtheory.net/?p=353

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