Comments on: Best Books for Graduate Students?

By: Samuel Vaiphei

Samuel Vaiphei — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 21:57:04 +0000

I would recommend “Subverting Global Myths” by Vinoth Ramachandra as a required reading!!

Of course Gods That Fail is a prequel to that book which is an equally good read.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:14:41 +0000

Augustine’s Confessions is applicable in all of the above situations, I think.

By: Hannah

Hannah — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:24:42 +0000

I’d also say that Greg Semenza’s book is useful. My department actually bought it for all incoming MA’s a few years in a row, if memory serves.

On another front, I’ve found Kathleen Norris’s book Acedia and Me to be an excellent companion to dissertation writing. She talks about the sin of acedia, which is the sin of not caring about things which matter – it can manifest as despair, as something like laziness, as frenetic activity to cover up deep struggles, and so on. She writes about combating this sin as a writer of poetry and nonfiction, drawing on the work of monastic writers. I was really struck by the parallels between monastic life and dissertation writing – both involve contemplative tasks, study, the struggle against distraction, etc.

Anyway, I’m not going to join a monastery, but I did find monastic thought really helpful in my own struggles with acedia.

By: Micheal Hickerson

Micheal Hickerson — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 21:43:41 +0000

I wasn’t aware of that book, but it sounds great. Thanks!

By: PRT

PRT — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:44:24 +0000

On academia, I recommend to all my fellow graduate students (at least those in the humanities) Greg Semenza’s book “Graduate Study for the 21st Century: Building a Career in the Humanities.”