What does an art historian read?

Some people read with intensity and focus; they commit to a single book and methodically read it until it is finished, and once finished, they start another book. I admire these people.

I read frantically and in spurts, as though the book will be taken away from me after a short amount of time. I'll read half the book in 24 hours, and then not look at it for two weeks. If I'm in the midst of a project (which is always) then I'm constantly flipping through and reading sections at a time based on the book's current relevance to my project. Or if I'm looking for a methodology, then I'll try to commit to an entire book and read it all at once, but I usually suck at doing this. And because I read for a living, it's hard to just kick back and read for pleasure after plowing through dense academic language/ideas. Sometimes (usually?) television wins out in that case. Or I'll read utter crap because it's easy to read and I can finish it in less than 48 hours (see my "just finished" list below).

Books from undergrad, books from grad school, free textbooks from publishing companies, books given as gifts, books bought on a whim in an airport, and books that I'm not entirely sure how they came into my possession; fiction, non-fiction, biography, novels, poetry, textbooks, books entirely composed of pictures, playbooks (football), playbooks (theater), anthologies; brochures, magazines, journals, photocopied articles, articles printed from the computer.

My reading materials have engendered romantic gifts: one year, my fiance bought me a bookcase for Valentine's Day. With the help of my landlord, he snuck into my apartment and I came home to a fully-assembled bookshelf so my books that were spilling out of my sad, collapsible bookcase could rest on the shelves. (It remains as one of my most-used and favorite gifts!) Another year, as a "beginning of the school year" gift, he bought me a filing cabinet to put all my looseleaf articles.

Currently reading for research and work-related projects (alphabetical by author):

• "Hard Hats and Art Strikes: Robert Morris in 1970" by Julia Bryan-Wilson, Art Bulletin (June 2007)
  
• Farewell to an Idea: Episodes from a History of Modernism by T.J. Clark
  
• The Rise of the Sixties by Thomas Crow
• Modern Art in the Common Culture by Thomas Crow
• A Cultural History of Fashion in the 20th Century: From the Catwalk to the Sidwalk by Bonnie English
• Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia by Robert Fisher
  
• Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States by Kenneth T. Jackson
• Minimalism: Art and Polemics in the Sixties by James Meyer (a re-read, review coming soon!)
  

Currently reading for fun (alphabetical by author)

• American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling (a re-read in preparation for the movie!)
  

Just finished:

• Wheel of Darkness by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (I'm a little ashamed of this one because it is TERRIBLE, the literary equivalent of cotton candy - fluffy and not at all nourishing!)
  

On my to-do list (alphabetical by author):

• Twelve Views of Manet's Bar by Bradford Collins
  
• "Everyday Life in Motion: The Art of Walking in Late-Nineteenth-Century Paris" by Nancy Forgione, Art Bulletin (December 2005)
  
• 1776 by David McCullough
  
• John Adams by David McCullough

And in my Amazon.com "Saved Items - To Buy Later" cart, a mixture of pleasure and work reading (alphabetical by author):

• Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture ed. Andrea Bacchi
  
• Still-Life and Trade in the Dutch Golden Age by Julie Berger Hochstrasser
• The Painting of Modern Life by T.J. Clark
• The Columbia Guide to American in the Sixties ed. by David Farber
  
• Absorption and Theatricality: Painting and Beholder in the Age of Diderot by Michael Fried
• Courbet's Realism by Michael Fried
  
• How We Got Here: The 70s, the Decade That Brought You Modern Life (For Better or For Worse) by David Frum
• The Embarrassment of Riches by Simon Schama
• The Seventies: The Great Shift in American Culture, Society and Politics by Bruce Schulman
  
• Portraiture by Shearer West

People have come to our apartment and been amazed by my books. Usually, they glance at the shelves, then later linger over the titles, and then eventually ask, "Have you actually read all these books?" Well, kinda.

We are acutely aware of how our reading material shapes people's perceptions of us. This article discusses how the Kindle disguises subway readers' books, thus being unable to let the entire car know that you are reading The Essential Kierkegaard. Conversely, it also lets you hide the fact that you are reading The Wheel of Darkness.

So for you, dear reader: what are you reading? Why are you reading it? How do you read? What do you prefer to read, and what do you prefer to not read? Imagine someone walked up to your bookshelf: what would that person surmise about your personality? Have you forced yourself to read something out of your comfort zone - and did you like it?

And bonus points: cull 4-5 books from my lists and propose a research topic and title of the paper. (This is a nerdy game I play with my art historian friends.)