Cardsbball77

On the supplement, Davidson asks for you to list each book you've read in the past year. How much reading do they expect out of applicants?

Thanks

amplifiar842

I would imagine not a ton...but they probably want to see that 1) you're reading books of substance (not just Twilight, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, etc.); 2) that you read recreationally in addition to for school; and 3) that you've read about a book per month? Something like that.

I read a LOT! This was the list I submitted (starred books required for school):
Books read, 2006-2007

*Rise to Globalism – Stephen Ambrose & Douglas Brinkley
*The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
Angels & Demons – Dan Brown
The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
A Clockwork Orange – Anthony Burgess
*The Stranger – Albert Camus
*Crime & Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky
*Founding Brothers – Joseph J. Ellis
*Invisible Man – Ralph Ellison
*As I Lay Dying – William Faulkner
*The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin – Benjamin Franklin
The World is Flat – Thomas L. Friedman
*A Primer of Jungian Psychology – Calvin S. Hall & Vernon J. Norby
*The Federalist Papers – Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, & John Jay
*The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne
*Steppenwolf – Hermann Hesse
*Daisy Miller: A Study – Henry James
*Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce
Lyric Poems – John Keats
*Freakonomics – Steven Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
*Hardball – Chris Matthews
*A Good Man Is Hard to Find: A Collection of Short Stories – Flannery O’Connor
1984 – George Orwell
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – J.K. Rowling
Harry Potter e il Calice di Fuoco – J.K. Rowling (translation: Beatrice Masini)
Harry Potter e L’Ordine della Fenice – J.K. Rowling (translation: Beatrice Masini)
Uncle Tom’s Cabin – Harriet Beecher Stowe
Democracy in America – Alexis de Tocqueville
*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain
*The Glass Castle – Jeannette Walls
*All the King’s Men – Robert Penn Warren

Again, I read a lot. I took two AP English classes and did American Lit Great Books my junior year.
I've probably read fifteen books this summer, and I'm working on another five.

gathsquatch

My list had about 30-40 but I don't know what the average number would be. It was difficult to figure out which books I had read exactly within the year cause I use the library often, so I just tried to put down the ones I remembered. Like amplifiar said, they want to see you're reading for fun so if all you put down are 700-page tomes they're probably not going to buy it. But you should have moved on from Young Adult novels, mostly.

Raceme117

Mine had about 35, full of nonfiction, the only fiction were those required of class. Read books of substance and of interest to you.

lizzzzzzyy

I assume plays by those like Shakespeare and Molier don't count?

amplifiar842

I can't imagine why plays wouldn't count. There are collections of plays and anthologies of plays...and just single plays. I'm sure you could put that, provided it's not the bulk of your reading list. Or really, even if it is, that'll just show you're into plays. If you're really worried about this, I'd talk to your college counselor or call the admissions office to ask if you should include plays, but I would've put them.