#veryshortintroduction

[thewindupbee]

Ur förordet till Antiken: "Under de senaste decennierna har svensk kurslitteratur i ämnet i det närmaste totalt trängts undan av engelskspråkiga böcker. Som lärare har vi märkt att studenterna fått svårt att uttrycka sig om forntiden på svenska. Den västeländska litteraturens portalgestalt Homeros kallas för »Homer«, romarnas inbördeskrig kallas för »civila krig« (eng. Civil Wars). Det saknas en terminologi på svenska, och det är bland annat mot denna bakgrund vi beslutade oss för att skriva en ny bok om antikens historia, i akt och mening att erbjuda en samlad översikt av epoken för svenska läsare." Nu är det väl inte så att gemene man har antiken som samtalsämne vid frukostbordet, men är det någon som känner igen sig? Måste erkänna att jag själv kan ha problem med terminlogin, trots att jag har ett stort intresse för antiken. Är därför mycket glad över att Natur & Kultur ger ut den här typen av böcker - och med ett snyggt omslag! Rekommenderar förresten Julia Annas Plato: A Very Short Introduction. Tycker att hennes översiktliga Platon-porträtt, som lyfter den själsliga kärnan i Platons dialoger, får dennes idéer att "make sense" - till skillnad från den sedvanliga politiskt dominerande läsningen av exempelvis Staten, som vi ärvt från den viktorianska eran och får folk att utbrista att Platon är fascist. Jo, tjenare. 🤦🏻‍♀️ Det är en givande bok som på komprimerat sätt belyser och problematiserar Platon, något som gynnar ens egen läsning av dialogerna. Har ni läst böcker från A Very Short Introduction-serien som ni tycker är bra? #sommarläsning #boktips #läserjustnu #currentlyreading #naturochkultur #antiken #platon #plato #vsi #veryshortintroduction #snyggformgivning #beatricebohman #filosofi #historia #böcker #litteratur #literature #bookstagram #igreads #books #bookphotography #nonfiction (på/i Göteborg, Sverige)

[drcisko]

Gillian Butler & Freda McManus - Psychology: A Very Short Introduction (1998) A really introductory text on Psychology, which is such a vast field that it's impossible to cover in some 140 pages, this is pretty interesting but being from 1998 is not as up to date as it could be (this second edition is from 2014, and there could be some changes made). One situation in which this lack of update immediately jumps at the reader is the way in which on a table of common mental illnesses it lists "transsexualism" as a mental illness in the same sentence as pedophilia and fetishism... that's jarring as hell. It's no longer recognised as an illness by any major clinical body, so it just feels like an artifact of an earlier time. Other than that it gives a competent overview of the different types of psychology practices and way in which it can be applied, it's ok, nothing particularly interesting about it, it covers some of the most famous psychological experiments and that is probably the most fun you can find here. (3/5) #bookcover #bookgram #bookstagram #bookporn #bookworm #psychology #gillianbutler #literature #fredamcmanus #oxford #nonfiction #bibliophile #booknerd #veryshortintroduction #oup (at Lisbon, Portugal) https://www.instagram.com/p/B_VXm2glPLU/?igshid=dp2cwhjr38e1

[aljohnee]

I realized 2 years ago that I went to school for the wrong thing. I fought that feeling for a year. Then in 2017 I decided to stop fighting (being afraid) and read anything I can get my hands on and start applying to school. 📖 #youarenevertoooldtolearn #bookstagram #bookoftheday #anthropology #socialandcultural #books #oxforduniversitypress #veryshortintroduction

[oupacademic]

A Very Short Fact: On this day in 1920, American saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City, Kansas. Known as “Yardbird” and later just “Bird,” Parker became an emblem for jazz musicians because of his experimental style and influence in the creation of bebop.

“Many northeastern players who joined Parker in the modernist style that was dubbed be-bop showed little affinity for blues, and the fact that audiences tended to prefer bands like McShann’s and Louis Jordan’s to their more musically adventurous groups just increased the disdain they felt for the straightforward blues stylists. As Parker’s frequent collaborator Dizzy Gillespie, who came from an eastern swing background, wrote: “The bebop musicians didn’t like to play the blues…. They’d play the twelve-bar outline of the blues, but they wouldn’t blues it up like the older guys they considered unsophisticated. They busied themselves making [chord] changes, a thousand changes in one bar…. Those guys overlooked the fact that Charlie Parker personified the blues idiom. When he played the blues, he was a real blueser.”

[P. 88: The Blues: A Very Short Introduction by Elijah Wald]

Like the Very Short Introductions on Facebook for more from this series.

_Image credit: Portrait of Charlie Parker in the Three Deuces of New York (N.Y.), in August 1947 by William P. Gottlieb (1917–2006). Public domain via Wikimedia Commons._

[kaggsy59]

"...a tragedy and a personal disaster." #camus @OxUniPress #veryshortintroduction

“…a tragedy and a personal disaster.” #camus @OxUniPress #veryshortintroduction

Albert Camus: A Very Short Introduction by Oliver Gloag

I can’t recall when I first stumbled across the “A Very Short Introduction” series from Oxford University Press; however, I know I seem to own increasing amounts of them, and the ones I’ve read have been most helpful (The French Revolution springs to mind!) So I was very interested to see that a new volume, taking on Albert Camus, was about…

[nielsenlibrary]

Tired of Wikipedia? Check out our Very Short Introductions! They’re short, fascinating, and written by experts in the field. #nielsenlibrary #bookstagram #bookdisplay #librariesofinstagram #veryshortintroductions — view on Instagram http://ift.tt/2HNeAWE

[drcisko]

Kim Knott - Hinduism: A Very Short Introduction (second edition) (2016) Another of the great little books in the Very Short Introduction series, this is one I actually feel quite competent in commenting, having an academic career in the Study of Religion with most of my BA spent studying Indian religions. As such I've read a bunch of introductory books on the subject and I can tell that this is a nifty little thing. 120 pages is a really short space in which to say anything really substantive about such a vast subject as "Hinduism" which is actually a collective noun for an huge number of religious expressions and beliefs, but Knott does the best possible job for the space allotted. Leaving aside the history of the religion she focuses mainly on how Hinduism is lived and thought today, with some contextualization of course. As a short introductory text it serves as kind of an open door to a much more complex world, and if anyone is truly interested in any specific dimension of Hinduism, be it the epic literature, the philosophy or devotional practices, there really is no need to stop here and the further reading section at the end is a useful starting point. Still, as a first encounter with the main ideas and practices of Indian Religions it's a nice short bite. (4/5) #bookcover #bookgram #bookstagram #bookporn #bookworm #literarytheory #kimknott #literature #hinduism #theory #oxford #nonfiction #bibliophile #booknerd #veryshortintroduction #oup (at Lisbon, Portugal) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3kEcBdFsK_/?igshid=1fvmhq0hvm9dd

[drcisko]

Jonathan Culler - Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction (2011) These little Oxford introductions are pretty great, I'll read them about any subject whatsoever, but in this case it is actually quite a useful one. Literary theory draws its ideas from pretty much all areas in the humanities and is also influential in not only literary studies but beyond in the way we interpret culture and look at works of art, be they texts or films etc. Culler takes an interesting approach here. Instead of going through the different schools of thought he prefers to address subjects and side-step thinkers and schools. Of course these are here as well and there's a handy appendix at the end with all the different schools of thought with short descriptions, of course you also get the names of some of the more influential figures in the field, like Foucault, Judith Butler, Lacan or Derrida. What Culler does is take a subject like "What is Literature" and give disparate perspectives on it without actually committing to any answer, these perspectives map on to different schools of thought, but if you want to find out about that you will have to go somewhere else, this is an introduction after-all. Nice and useful little book. (4/5) #bookcover #bookgram #bookstagram #bookporn #bookworm #literarytheory #jonathanculler #literature #literarystudies #theory #oxford #nonfiction #bibliophile #booknerd #veryshortintroduction #oup (at Lisbon, Portugal) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxTwKTGlzDE/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=hz77hy1jmrlv

[considermycat]

Started #reading Buddhism: A Very Short Introduction by Damien Keown. #books #nonfiction #veryshortintroductions #buddhism #bookstagram https://www.instagram.com/p/CTXKJrQMJO4/?utm_medium=tumblr