always learning

Living overseas in non-English speaking countries, I tend to stock up on books whenever I’m back in the US. Usually I start my Amazon order as soon as the school year starts (August/September), adding books for months, before I finally purchase sometime in May, scheduled to arrive at my parents’ house just in time for my annual visit. Of course, this monster order fluctuates throughout the year because I can usually find some of the more popular books here in my favorite bookstore, Kinokuniya.

All of this stockpiling usually leads to a heavy bookshelf (or two) bulging with books waiting to be read throughout the year. Unfortunately, I almost never get through all of them in one school year, but I love seeing them there, waiting to be read, so that when I finally have my chance, I’m usually so excited I devour them in days (most likely when we’re lounging at the beach during holidays).

As usual, I have a selection of books on display again this school year, a few of which I’ve been able to read during holidays, but many are still waiting for the perfect moment. Here are some highlights of what I’ve got on the shelf:

• Disrupting Class by Dr. Clayton Christensen
• The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
• Leading in a Culture of Change by Michael Fullen
• The Spike by Damien Broderick
• Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein
• Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky
• A New Literacies Sampler by Michael Knobel and Colin Lankshear
• The Future of Ideas by Lawrence Lessig
• Knowing Knowledge by George Siemens
• Outliers by Malcom Gladwell
• Meaningful Learning Using Technology by Elizabeth Alexander Ashburn and Robert E. Floden
• Changing Minds by Howard Gardner
• Generation Digital by Katherine Montgomery
• The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Counterknowledge by Damian Thompson
• Mindstorms by Seymour Papert
• Youth Online by Angela Thomas
• Distributed Leadership by James P. Spillane
• Convergence Culture by Henry Jenkins

I’ve got a few more on another shelf I’m anxious to read as well:

• Teaching for Understanding with Technology by Martha Stone Wiske, Kristi Rennebohm Franz, and Lisa Breit
• Reinventing Project Based Learning by Suzie Boss, Jane Krauss, and Leslie Conery
• Web 2.0: New Schools, New Tools by Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum
• The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy by Pietra Rivoli
• Third Culture Kids by David C. Pollock and Ruth Van Reken
• International Schools, International Education by Hayden & Thomps

So, you can imagine how pleased I was to read the following on the very first page of The Black Swan:

The writer Umberto Eco belongs to that small class of scholars who are encyclopedic, insightful, and nondull. He is the owner of a large personal library (containing thirty thousand books), and separates visitors into two categories: those who react with “Wow! Signore professore dottore Eco, what a library you have! How many of those books have you read?” and the others – a very small minority – who get the point that a private library is not an ego-boosting appendage but a research tool. Read books are far less valuable than unread ones. The library should contain as much of what you do not know as your financial means, mortage rates, and the currently tight real-estate market will allow you to put there. You will accumulate more knowledge and more books as you grow older and the growing number of unread books on the shelves will look at you menacingly. Indeed, the more you know, the larger the rows of unread books.

What’s on your shelf?