I know that hardly sounds unusual in 2010, where the latest web and tech trends conspire to make all of us information-news junkies of one variety or another, but in 2003 it meant going a little out of your way to keep up with things.

It was just before the “blogosphere” was invited to join cable news and before the aggregators compiled every little development, from all corners of the media machine, into a single space.

It was back before newspapers disappeared and journalism was still a stable career choice.

A time when columnists could take a leave of absence that they affectionately referred to as book leave.

Why anyone would need to take a specifically sanctioned absence from writing less than 800 words, twice weekly is beyond me — and probably most mere mortals as well.

Still, back then the only thing I wanted more than my own column was to go on book leave.

As of this month, I am on a leave of absence from my graduate program until the new year. There area a number of reasons involved and most of them beyond my influence, but I am going to refer to the whole ordeal as being on book leave.

+ Andrew Potter, The Authenticity Hoax: How We Get Lost Finding Ourselves

One of the most loaded words you can drop in seminar is authenticity. Everyone nods reflexively whenever it’s used but no one can agree on precisely what it means, how to measure it, and why it’s so bloody important.

I’ve had the benefit of listening (read: nod reflexively) to Potter discuss the underlying argument behind his latest book and I know he’s close to providing a working vocabulary for navigating authenticity in and out of the classroom. Hopefully, he also provides a persuasive reason for dispensing with the obsession entirely.

+ Laura Penny, More Money Than Brains: Why Schools Suck, College is Crap, and Idiots Think They’re Right

I really enjoyed Penny’s first book, Your Call is Important to Us (2005) and I’m looking forward to the unofficial follow-up — particularly its premise, as a recent graduate turned grad student. It sure would be cathartic to read a non-academic (read: readable) assessment of the failings of our troubled education system. Plus, Penny is quite hilarious.

MAY

+ Cory Doctorow, For The Win

I just finished reading Little Brother (2008) and Makers (2009) and I want more. Yes; For The Win it is technically classified as teen fiction, but so is Little Brother and all that really meant was that it was about kids. Maybe that’s the criteria for so-called teen fiction these days.

Still, there’s something about Doctorow’s writing that’s infectious regardless of classification. The answer is probably humanism: he generally shuns both the hopeful and hopeless traditions in science fiction literature in favour of a more parable-like balance. Since the telecom-powers-that-be seem bent on limiting our access to the internet more and more, it’s only a matter of time until the kids kick and scream. For The Win seems like a prophetic glimpse into that looming battle.

+ Jonathan Alter, The Promise: President Obama, Year One

The Obama book industry is in high gear and no longer dominated by the man himself, with Dreams from My Father (1995) and The Audacity of Hope (2006).

Chuck Todd and Sheldon Gawiser’s How Barack Obama Won (2009) and Evan Thomas’ A Long Time Coming (2009) arrived almost immediately after the election and right before the 44th president’s inauguration. Richard Wolffe’s Renegade (2009) and David Plouffe’s The Audancity to Win (2009) followed shortly thereafter, weighing different insider perspectives of the campaign trail (as journalist and campaign-manager, respectively), while John Heilemann’s well-recieved Game Change (2010) opened the year by offering a broader assessment of the whole 2008 campaign. And last week saw the arrival of New Yorker editor David Remnick’s biography, The Bridge (2010).

While I’m sure I will get to a few of those in time, the book I’m really looking forward to reading is Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter’s The Promise (2010). Apart from the big decisions and blunders, the media’s short attention span left the finer points of Obama’s first few days in office largely unexplored. I suspect Alter’s book will fill that niche and describe the atmosphere of the Obama White House — something that will interest anyone still reeling from eight years of Bush II.

JUNE

+ Christopher Hitchens, Hitch 22: A Memoir

Lots of people don’t like Hitchens and that’s more or less the reason why I’m anxious to read his memoir: he’s more than likely to renew a feud or start a new one. Plus, he’s one of the most interesting public intellectuals around — to say nothing of his writing.

He also has a habit of hijacking discussions in order to make his point (see any of his news or talk show appearances) and since his subject isn’t exactly scholarly, I have a hunch that he may, in fact, hijack his own memoir for some other purpose. That and there’s sure to be some discussion of hate-mail inspired by god Is Not Great (2007).

+ Amber MacArthur, Power Friending: Demystifying Social Media to Grow Your Business

I’m bored with books that try to persuade me how socially corrosive web and new media are, and I’m not interested in reading anything from the legion of self-proclaimed new media experts on how to get rich. I’ve come to appreciate Amber’s user perspective through Net@Night and CommandN (among her other vehicles), and her first book looks like it might be the goldilocks fix — or, in other words, something akin to Mark Frauenfelder’s Rule the Web (2007).

So, that’s my spring new reads list. What’s yours?

Feel free to share your own list in the comment section below.