December is Journalist and Politician Month

Most (but not all) books by politicians and journalists on political matters are shallow and one-sided. For the most part I've avoided ideology-affirming books for works of relative substance.

Notice, for example, that I haven't included any books by Michael Moore (or Sean Hannity during Conservative Month). While I may share much of Moore's political outlook, I think his books are more likely to reinforce the ideas of those who already agree with what he has to say than they are to persuade his ideological opponents of their errors. There is little attempt to make a substantive argument.

Not all books by journalists and politicians fall into this category, however, so I'm dedicating this month to works by politicians and journalists that help explain the progressive side of life.

Participating in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) during November threw my posting schedule for a loop, but I should be back on track by Monday, December 5.

Magazine Week

Since a good progressive library includes magazines as well as books, movies, websites, etc. the last week of November is officially magazine week.

Erratic Posting

An uptick in the demands of work and working on a book for National Novel Writing Month have made the daily posts sporadic. My apologies.

However, given that daily posts have not been appearing daily, I'm just going to post the rest of November tonight, and get back to the daily schedule in December.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! And thank you for following along.

A Little More About This Project

It occurred to me one day not too long ago that creating annotated lists brings me great joy. It seems like everything I've enjoyed doing over the last decade involves some form of annotated list-making.

I loved studying history in school. One of the keys to writing good research is creating an annotated bibliography.

One of my favorite tasks as a librarian is collection development. To develop a collection I create an annotated list of works I think give a sound overview of a topic.

I'm a hobbyist blogger. A blog is really not much more than an annotated list in sequential date order.

A few months after I got a job as a librarian I began thinking more deeply about reference works. Someone has to write them, could I be one of those someone's? The task seemed daunting and beyond the scope of my skills. Still, I found the idea appealing.

In June 2011 it occurred to me that I might be able to combine my love of annotating lists with my interest in creating a reference work with my knowledge of blogging. This blog is the result and I consider it an experiment in drafting a reference work.

I chose progressive politics as a subject because it's a familiar topic. So far it's been working out well. If this process continues to work for me I can see using this strategy for drafting future reference works.

Once this blog is completed at the end of June 2012, I should have the raw material to put together a reference guide to works on progressive politics. We'll see how it all works out, but in the meantime I'll use this space for a few moments each day to point out books I hope you find interesting.

Thanks for reading! And if you have any recommendations for titles I should mention, leave a comment.