<p>What books are helpful to read before college? My middle school never had us read To Kill a Mockingbird and Tom Sawyer. Should I read those? Do you site those ever in college? If not, what do you reference? </p>
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<p>You probably won’t actually cite those books in college unless you take some kind of literature class and choose to write about them. You should read classic novels to make yourself more culturally literate and a better reader, not because you’ll necessarily deal with those novels in college. </p>
<p>I take college classes. In papers we usually reference the assigned readings for the course. In my creative writing class, we read selections from an anthology of contemporary poetry, an anthology of modern short stories, and a nonfiction book that explains different elements of the craft of creative writing. In my non-western philosophy class, we have two nonfiction books, one about Indian philosophy and one about Chinese philosophy. In my ethics class, we read English translations of writings by different famous philosophers.</p>
<p>@halcyonheather I’m sort of nervous because in my class, my teacher draws parallels between To Kill a Mockingbird to what the class is currently reading. Do you think it would be worth it to read those books during the summer? I have AP Biology homework over the summer already and I’m not taking AP English (that has 5 books for summer reading along with 5 papers).</p>
<p>If you read a lot, you’ll understand more of the references people make, but you can’t predict what people will reference, so don’t worry too much about reading any specific classic novels. Just find a list of books like [this</a> one](<a href=“http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/21804.101_Great_Books_Recommended_for_College_Bound_Readers]this”>101 Great Books Recommended for College-Bound Readers (101 books)), choose one to read (maybe a shorter one if you don’t have much experience with the language in older books), then read another one. Off the top of my head, The Catcher in the Rye and Fahrenheit 451 are easier to read than some of the others, as are the ones you mentioned.</p>
<p>Awesome! I have read Catcher and Fahrenheit 
@halcyonheather</p>
<p>Hemingway is probably a good bet too, I would recommend The Old Man and the Sea over The Sun Also Rises though. TKAM is generally a good book to have under your belt, I have a friend who has used it for most of her essays in AP Lang, IB English 11, and the Regents final exam at the end of junior year. In the vein of Tom Sawyer, I had to read Huck Finn entering junior year and it was pretty long winded in my opinion. Wouldn’t recommend it.</p>
<p>@rosie16 Oh awesome! I have read The Sun Also Rises. Thank you!</p>
<p>TKAM, The Great Gatsby, Huck Finn, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Lord of the Flies are pretty good books that are very interesting (Lord of the Flies is a great book). </p>
<p>@hawkace I should probably reread Lord of the Flies. I read that freshman year and really enjoyed it! I will try to read TKAM and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Thank you!</p>
<p>The Scarlet Letter and Shakespeare are also good bets too. I have found The Scarlet Letter to be relevant and useful many times.</p>
<p>I loved the Scarlet Letter! @rosie416</p>
<p>Glad it wasn’t just me!</p>