Close reading
The Gazette asked a mix of faculty to highlight in personal terms some favorites from the reading life. Karen Brennan Assistant professor of education I love sharing my favorite books with students. But, perhaps even more, I love students’ sharing their favorite books with me. As one student remarked, “You get to assign us readings. It’s only fair that we give you readings.” My student-assigned reading list is wonderfully eclectic, with a wide range of texts having appeared on my desk in Longfellow Hall. The holidays are a time of looking forward and back, looking inward and outward — and two of the student-recommended books serve as particularly playful and imaginative invitations to reflection and contemplation. Hans Ulrich Obrist’s “do it: the compendium” is a collection of instructions from artists, developed in response to a call to “create an instruction that someone else can use to make an artwork.” The instructions range from...