on’t you hate it when professors say they don’t have a lot of
time to read and then, when you ask, list more books they’ve
read in the past three months than you’ve managed to read
in the past three years?
They aren’t foolin’ us.
The Review asked 157 active and retired faculty and a few administrators
what they had read, were reading and planned to read — business and pleasure
— and an impressive one-third of them played along.
Laurie McNeil, former chair of physics and astronomy, wrote that she was
“flattered to be included in this group, though I can’t imagine why anybody
would care what I am
reading,” then explained
in detail why she’s reading about science
experiments. Adjunct
accounting professor
C.J. Skender is pretty
sure his own Financial
Accounting is a “bikini
magnet,” so he’ll have it
on the beach with him.
Associate professor of
English Randall Kenan
’ 85 has at his bedside
Mrs. Beeton’s Book of
Household Management, originally published in 1861, because “I’m fascinated by
everything the everyday folk had to do in order to get along in the world.”
Dedicated to reuse and recycling, biology lecturer Jean DeSaix rarely buys new
books but finds treasures at the thrift stores.
Former law school dean Gene Nichol says, “For what may be obvious rea-
sons, I’ve been drawn, in the last few months, to books about poor people and
the movements they push waging battle against the privilege of the wealthy.”
D
eportsBookR
Steal this list.
The complete read, 246 books, is at
alumni.unc.edu/book_reports2010,
along with the complete lists (including commentary) of two chancellors.
Look for the M that indicates the four books listed by three or more readers.
