Sarah Thornton is an ethnographer who writes about art, design and people. Sarah was the former chief writer on contemporary art for The Economist. She was once hailed as "Britain's hippest academic" and is now better known as "the Jane Goodall of the art world". A scholar-in-residence at University of California, Berkeley, she is the author of Club Cultures, Seven Days in the Art World, 33 Artists in 3 Acts, and is researching her next book Uplifting Sagas: The Top Half of Women’s Liberation.
Which three books would you recommend?
The Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance Howard Becker
Becker's essays about the hipness of jazz musicians and the way culture frames weird bodily sensations (like being stoned on marijuana) as pleasurable are classics in my field. They have informed my perspective on many social worlds.
Why We Sleep Matthew Walker
Anyone interested in health, well-being and sanity should read this eye-opening book. Shakespeare was right. Sleep "heals hurt minds"; it is "nature's soft nurse."
Mother NatureSarah Blaffer Hrdy
Hrdy is an anthropologist and primatologist who illuminates human behavior by studying apes, monkeys and ancient humanoid hunter-gatherers. She reminds us that we are mammals before we are anything else.
What is your favourite bookstore or library?
I live near San Francisco's renowned City Lights bookstore. Their non-fiction and scholarly stacks are my favorite place to get a perspective on publishing.