Read Like A Longhorn: Book Recommendations

Recommended by Geoffrey, UT junior: Convinced me to pursue physics in college and as a career, Feynman describes physics in such a captivating and understandable way, sharing his life experiences and his own joy of learning. Plus he is extremely funny!

Recommended by Sol, UT senior & library student worker: This graphic novel is equally funny and sincere. It's a memoir of a trans man recounting his experience in high school.

Recommended by Grant, UT Libraries staff: Partners is a memoir written by Stephen Housewright (a librarian!) about his life with his partner, Texas experimental composer Jerry Hunt. Essential reading for anyone who grew up as a weirdo in suburban America (in this case, Dallas, TX), Partners intimately surveys the lives of two people who refused to compromise their personal and artistic integrity. Privately released in the 1995 after Jerry's death, Partners received a wider release in 2021 thanks to Blank Forms (my personal favorite publisher!).

Recommended by Annah, UT Libraries staff: Ortberg (formerly of The Toast) uses humor and astute literary analysis to explore his relationship with religion, his gender identity, and life in general. With chapter titles like "Captain James T. Kirk Is a Beautiful Lesbian, and I'm Not Sure Exactly How to Explain That" and "The Matriarchs of Avonlea Begrudgingly Accept Your Transition / Men of Anne of Green Gables Experience", Ortberg captures you from the beginning and then spends the rest of the compilation challenging you.

Recommended by Elizabeth, UT Libraries staff: This half prose, half poetry book-length essay sprawls; from Buffalo, NY to a farm in the hills of Tennessee to Iceland, T Fleischmann weaves together memories of nights spent with lovers, a review of Félix González-Torres’ life & work, their hormone replacement therapy journey, Greek myth, an anti-colonialist take on the Public Universal Friend, and meditations on love and ice in their breathtaking commentary on what it is to have a body and what it means to create. If you love art or have a body (or hopefully both!), you can’t miss this one. ​
TL;DR: non-linear, queer, trans rumination on art & life

Recommended by Erin, UT Libraries staff: Get to know one of the fathers of the horror genre, Edgar Allan Poe, as poet and literary critic who helped shape American literature. Told as a dual timeline narrative, this biography explores the mystery around Poe's death while giving the reader a glimpse of the man behind the macabre caricature.

Recommended by Ian, UT Libraries staff: This excellent biography offers deep insights into the life and thought of Austin Osman Spare, an artist who, after brief success early in life, fell out of favor with the art world and delved into his own philosophy of occultism and the power of the subjective, weaving his ideas and his artistic practice together into an entirely unique worldview and aesthetic.