Faculty Book Club

The Faculty Book Club is open to all current and emeritae/i faculty, and sponsored by the Center. CTFD will provide copies of the book to the first twenty participants, so act now for your free books! To reserve your copy, please e-mail the Center at ctfdreg@sfsu.edu.

If you have a book recommendation, or if you would like to serve as facilitator for future sessions, please let us know! We look forward to your participation.

2008 Book Club - Read in Summer, Meet in Fall 2008

The Battle of the Books and Other Short Pieces by Jonathan Swift

The SF State Faculty Book Club's must-read book of this summer is a satirical delight! The Battle of The Books formed the prolegomena to Swift's first long satirical work (A Tale of a Tub, 1704). The "battle" of the title is an actual war between ancient and modern authors and critics, each side trying to argue that his era contained more knowledge, wisdom and talent than the other. This literary fracas was a hot button topic in French creative circles during the 1690s, and, though never taken as seriously in England, the controversy inspired Swift to pen both The Battle of the Books and A Tale of a Tub.

Those who enroll in the Faculty Book Club will receive their book shortly for summer reading, and be invited to the lunch colloquium early in the fall semester. David Hellman, Collection Development Coordinator of the J. Paul Leonard Library, will lead the discussion and explain how Swift's early 18th century mock literary battle reflects ongoing debate within academe.

2007 Book Club - Read in Summer, Meet in Fall 2007

Why Read? by Mark Edmundson

For our first selection, we have chosen Mark Edmundson's Why Read? and hope to encourage your participation by this excerpt from the front cover flap: "Can great books change people's lives? In this important book, acclaimed author Mark Edmundson reconceives the value and the promise of reading. He dramatizes what the recent identity crisis in the humanities has effectively obscured: that reading can change your life for the better." This book is sure to provoke healthy and animated discussion!

The plan is for us to "read in fall; meet in spring," so those who enroll in the Faculty Book Club will receive their book shortly, and an invitation to the inaugural discussion early in the spring semester. Professor Emerita Barbara McLauchlin (Classics) will be our facilitator, aided by Center for Teaching and Faculty Development, CTFD's associate dean, Pamela Vaughn.