Cheryl Harris, Alison Alexander (eds). Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture, and Identity. Cresskill, N.J.: Hampton Press, 1998. My rating:*** Theorizing Fandom: Fans, Subculture and Identity by Cheryl Harris This is a rather useful edited collection about various media fandoms and fan practices. There is the usual stuff on slash included. Of course the book’s appearance in …
Sheenagh Pugh, The Democratic Genre: Fan Fiction in a Literary Context. Bridgend: Seren, 2005. My rating: **** The Democratic Genre: Fan Fiction in a Literary Context by Sheenagh Pugh This book offers an excellent and sympathetic overview of fan fiction as a literary form. The author uses material from both media and literary fandoms as …
My rating: * Spoiler Alert The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman My review This book is well written and the story really hooks you in, but I really disliked the philosophy Pullman is pushing. This philosophy seems to be a kind of Nietzschean materialist version of gnosticism (phew!). His is a universe which allows only …
My rating: *** The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman My review I found this book a bit disappointing after the first one. It has taken me a while to analyse why. I think it is a combination of a number of things. First of all I’m not quite convinced by Pullman’s cosmology. Somehow it isn’t …
My rating: **** Northern Lights (His Dark Materials I) Tenth Anniversary 1995-2005 by Philip Pullman My review I enjoyed this book a great deal. Well-written and well-plotted with interesting characters. It also created a most convincing alternative world. Of particular interest is the idea that humans have souls which manifest themselves in physical animal form …
Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse (eds.) 2006. Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet: New Essays, Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland & Co. My rating: *** My review Quite interesting with some useful if rather rushed definitions of the some of the jargon used by fan fiction writers in the introduction. A large …
Rebecca W. Black. (2008). Adolescents and Online Fan Fiction (New Literacies and Digital Epistemologies). New York: Peter Lang. My rating: *** Adolescents and Online Fan Fiction by Rebecca W. Black This book uses current educational theory to discuss adolescent fan fiction. The book is useful in that it attempts to argue for the importance of …
My rating: * I have put up a review of this rather dire book simply as an excuse to introduce the only social networking site I have found to be of any use – Goodreads. This site allows you to keep a record of the books you read and to share your ratings and reviews …
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