Matt Hampel | matth.org

Books new on the shelf in the last month-ish, categorized by approximate primary use:

Philosophy of Sociology, SOC 508

Actually a pretty awesome course on the nature of research methods and the formation of discipline. Professor curates changingsociety.org, does interesting video interviews with top sociologists.

• Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences / Jon Elster
• Pathologies of Rational Choice Theory / Green & Shaprio
• Comparative Historical Analysis in the Social Sciences / Mahoney & Rueschemeyer
• Social Mechanisms / Hedström & Swedberg
• Department and Discipline / Abbott

UROP research

• The Rational Guide to Building SharePoint Web Parts / Darin Bishop. While you’d expect this to contain only the repeated phrase “danger — run”, it does not, so it fails to fulfill the promise implicit in its title. That, or it sets up some sort of paradox that will destroy us all.
• (two other books related books, whose titles will sour this post, but are central to the success of my project)

General Awesomeness

• The Media Lab / Stewart Brand
• Finally: A Pattern Language /Alexander et al, thanks to a well-timed Borders gift card.
• Imagined Communities / Anderson, my first real book that BookMooch allowed me to take.

Christmas Sociology

• Structural Holes / Burt, reviewed and recommended on Vacuum some time ago.
• Orality and Literacy / Ong, which, as the title suggests, links oral and literary cultures;
• Emergence / Steven Johnson, on emergence theory and group power;
• Turf Wars / Gabriella Gahlia Modan, on linguistics and the formation of conceptions of place in neighborhoods.

And, finally:

How to Marry the Man of Your Choice (imagine the o in choice is a gold band) / Margaret Kent. Required reading for anyone entering a serious relationship. Sample chapter available.