thirty books question

[Harriet Ottenheimer]

Hello All,

I have agreed to help select the next generation of "books for college 
libraries" and in this go-round the editors of the list have decided to 
include linguistic anthropology!!!  My task, as a result, is to choose 
thirty books which "every" college library should own in the field.  As 
I understand it the books should be in print, fairly contemporary 
(although I think some classics will probably be allowed), and provide a 
basic and representative image of important (and readable?) works in the 
field.  One way to think about this is to imagine a very small college 
library, which has limited funds, but which can afford to buy thirty 
books for its students and faculty to consult in the field of linguistic 
anthropology.

My question to all of you is: if you were asked to choose just thirty 
linganth books, which ones would you choose?  Which ones would you 
consider the most important to include?  Reference works are allowed in 
this exercise.  I want to make sure to include books on methodology 
(including fieldwork), books on language, culture, and world-view, books 
which deal with the various intersections of 
language-culture-gender-ethnicity-power, books on origins, evolution, 
change, pidgins, and creoles, books on language acquisition/learning, 
primate language, sign language, endangered languages, language 
revitalization, ethnography of reading, writing systems and literacy, 
i.e., the full range of linguistic anthropology.

As I began working on this project I realized that some of you might 
want to have some input into the results, so I've decided to ask!  I 
guess it's a variant of the 'desert island' kind of question.  Looking 
forward to seeing your suggestions.  If anyone cares to have a 
compilation of the responses please let me know and I will build one.

All best,

Harriet Ottenheimer