[penguicon-general] Fannish Material To Read

[Garrett Kajmowicz]

As some of you may have known, I've been recently appointed to the board of 
directors of Penguicon.  I have a strong background from the OpenSource side 
of things.  However, my background in the "fannish" side of things is weak.  
As such, I'm looking for suggestions of other items which I should be reading 
or watching to better understand the other side of things.

There are a few criteria to be considered:

It should be easy to get ahold from a well-stocked library.  The library I 
have access to is the Carnegie Library System: http://www.carnegielibrary.com
I'm not willing to start spending money on books, authors or even genres I 
have little experience with.  Since I live in Pittsburgh, borrowing starts to 
be difficult, as well.

It should be in English.  I can also read French, but if so, it should be 
short.

It should be a core experience for anyone in the fannish community.  Yes, 
there is "your favorite book of all time which is better than anything else 
ever written".  However, I'm trying to understand the community as a whole, 
and not just you.  Sorry  :-)


Thanks for the suggestions,

-     Garrett