CSSLibraryGuides: Faculty Reading Lists: Dr. James Crane

Dr. Crane Reads What?

Our guest this month is Dr. James Crane, an Assistant Professor in the Department of English. We are calling this special one-on-one "Crane on Crane."

Here's his list of the books that have influenced him.

1 - Moby Dick by Herman Melville
Call Number: PS2384 .M6 1994x
It’s my favorite because it’s dazzling, and because Melville was ahead of his time. This novel is not for everyone, I suppose, but Melville never fails to astonish, entertain, and stimulate. It’s NUMINOUS, yo!
2 - The Complete Aubrey-Maturin Novels by Patrick O'Brian
Call Number: PR6029.B55 A6 2004
These historical novels of adventure, intrigue, and friendship in the Napoleonic era document the friendship between Captain Jack Aubrey of the Royal Navy and his amigo Stephen Maturin, a physician and spy. Also, I’m not at all cheating here, because this collection of 20.5 novels is actually one long, continuous novel.
3 - Persuasion - in a tie for third with The Morgesons! by Jane Austen
Call Number: PR4034 .P4 2006
Although these novels are very different, I love both of them for their humor, their originality, and the depth of the social acuity that both novels demonstrate. I learn more about love, family, and relationships from novels than from real life, that’s for sure.
3 - The Morgesons - in a tie for third with Persuasion! by Elizabeth Stoddard
Call Number: PS2934.S3 M67x 1901
Although these novels are very different, I love both of them for their humor, their originality, and the depth of the social acuity that both novels demonstrate. I learn more about love, family, and relationships from novels than from real life, that’s for sure.
4 - The Sandman Graphic Novels. by Neil Gaiman
I’m a bit of a comic book geek, and these are some of the most erudite comics ever. Additionally, Neil Gaiman is a hipster, so the hipsters dig him.
5 - The Collected Poems by Frank O'Hara
I never get tired of O’Hara’s imaginative, effulgent poems. I love Walt Whitman, too—but I had to choose one, and I went with Frank O’Hara.
What are you reading now?
I’m re-reading James Baldwin’s masterful 1963 novel Another Country, because I’m teaching it in my African-American Literature course. We are having amazing conversations about this edgy, gorgeously crafted novel. I’m also reading Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle—a book by Betty MacDonald that was first published in the 1940s—aloud to two rowdy boys. For fun, I just began reading some of Jacques Rancière’s work on the politics of literature.
Desert Island Pick (this is your bonus title--the book that you can take along to the island for sheer reading pleasure)
The Bible, because DUH. Hopefully I would also happen upon a trunk filled with all the volumes from the Verso Radical Thinkers Series (although some of them are annoying) and with Marcel Proust’s 7 volume Á La Recherche de Temps Perdu. I figure that would help me to fill up some spare time.