Wednesday, June 15, 2011

The ELT PLN Book List!

I've just had a quickie conversation on Twitter with those I follow (99.999% are English language teachers) a.k.a. my PLN (Personal Learning Network).

I was also recently asked: "Can you recommend any good summer reading?" 

I came up with titles such as The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of The Oxford English Dictionary or Shakespeare on Toast  or The Fight for English.  But then it hit me. All the books I've read in the last 365+ days have been non-fiction books related to language or literature.

Fortunately, I've been saved! In the time it's taken me to type this out, the hashtag has taken charge.  It's coiner: @

Who better to ask for reading recommendations than our fellow teachers? We probably have a high sensitivity for writing styles we can sink our teeth into not to mention excellent filters against airport junk.  

So use the hashtag and join in on the discussion!  And happy reading! 
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5 comments:

  1. Here are some of the recommendations that have popped up in the last 5mn:

    @fionamau: Amin Maalouf too - he writes in French or u can get the English. Iain Banks' The Crow Road.

    @sandymillin Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman. Or the Millenium trilogy!

    @harrisonmike We Need To Talk About Kevin

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  2. You are faster than your shadow Beth!

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  3. Straight from one of Jeremy Harmer's Keynotes:
    A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers: A Novel
    Incredible recommendation and read!

    I tend to enjoy novels about assimilation or immigration experiences. When I taught a literature program to graduate/high school students who were taking English writing classes I used these types of novels because students enjoy reading about others who have a similar journey. Many of these have a bit of English as a Lingua Franca where writers mix their language with English. Anyway, here are books I recommend:

    The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by
    Junot Diaz (Lots of great Dominican Republic history)
    Anything written by Haruki Murakami who is one of the greatest Japanese writers (I'm currently enjoying Dance, Dance, Dance and finished Norwegian Wood)
    Give Me: (Songs for Lovers) by Irina Denezhkina (Russian youth)
    How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
    Shanghai Baby by Wei Hui
    A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (Captures New Orleans culture and dialect so well and incredibly funny)
    Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros (Strange this is like reading about myself growing up. Anything by this author who captures Mexican American life & happens to be from San Antonio, my hometown)
    NP by Banana Yoshimoto (anything by this great Japanese writer but it tends to be really sad)
    Are You Experienced? by William Sutcliffe (incredibly funny and documents UK youth traveling to India)

    This ought to get you started :-)

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  4. Please add your recommendations to the reading list! http://bit.ly/eltbooklist

    Many thanks,

    Mike

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  5. Thanks Mike! Will do! Get to it everyone! :-)

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