<p>I just finished up my junior year, and for me, summer is the time to read all of the books that a good high school english curriculum (not mine, this year we read a total of 4 books, which I suppose is an improvement from the previous year, when we read 1 play and 1 abridged novel) should have required me to read. So, I guess now is the time to compile a list. If you had to name just one, what is one book I should have read before college? Don’t worry, I’m not trying to read nonstop Shakespeare and Tolstoy all summer, just trying to become a well-read person! Your suggestions would be greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Read The Gatekeepers. It gives lots of inside information on the selective application process that students would normally not know about and is in itself a good story.</p>
<p>1)Tell us what you have read, and what you will have to read, as well as what you like. Some classics everyone should read, but I always think it is best to begin with things you are likely to enjoy</p>
<p>2)Search the forum and archives on “books” “reading” or “Pride and Prejudice” or some author’s name - Sometime in the last year there was a very good thread about this exact topic.</p>
<p>I’m something of an English lit snob and a classicist, but here is my must read list -
“Pride and Prejudice”
“A Tale of Two Cities”
“The Three Musketeers”
Andrew Lamb’s synopses of Shakespeare’s plays (I can’t remember the exact title)
“Huckleberry Finn” and “Tom Sawyer”
“The Great Gatsby”
“The Grapes of Wrath”
“Ivanhoe”
“Candide”
“To Kill a Mockingbird”</p>
<p>Thanks for your suggestions!</p>
<p>what i have read: (in the past year, that i can remember)
the gatekeepers
the great gatsby
hamlet
dress your family in corduroy and denim
me talk pretty one day
death of a salesman
the heart is a lonely hunter
curious incident of the dog in the nighttime
i am charlotte simmons
the davinci code
the scarlet letter
the jungle</p>
<p>that’s all i really can remember at the moment. i liked all of the above.</p>
<p>other good books i’ve read: grapes of wrath, of mice and men, light in august, the chosen, to kill a mockingbird, harry potter.</p>
<p>My need to read this summer is becoming increasingly obvious as I write this!</p>
<p>Well, the most obvious, if you have not already read it, is the Bible, (both testaments). And I don’t mean you should read it as a matter of faith, but as an historical and cultural piece of literature. The Bible is essential to studying history, philosophy, religion, art history, western civiliztation, European culture and to the understanding of most classic Western literature. It provides essential context to most later works. You will find the Bible is the source of more literary/historical reference than any other single work. Especially if you intend to read the original source material for history or politics, you will not be able to truly comprehend it if you have not read the Bible. This is one of the great failings of the public schools today, IMHO.</p>
<p>Sneakypete, see by my list you are on the way already! I agree with Wyogal about the Bible. I live in the Bible Belt, and DD went to an Episcopal high school, and years of Sunday School, but we were talking the other day, and she mentioned how little Biblical knowledge many of her friends had, and how many references you just “don’t get” without that background - it just seems natural to me, but because of public schools and other changes in the culture, it is not part of most people’s shared background.</p>
<p>Greek and Roman mythology is important too, the standard book my kids read/will read - “Mythology” by Edith Hamilton</p>
<p>The gigantic holes I see in your list of books you have read are Dickens and Twain. How can you get out of high school without reading Huck Finn or Tom Sawyer???</p>
<p>Well in eighth grade, my teacher read aloud the first chapter of huckleberry finn. just a week ago in my AP LANGUAGE AND COMPOSITION class we watched the movie, Huckleberry Finn, which, my teacher said, “is a movie everyone should have seen.” I will read it and Tom Sawyer this summer. What Dickens do you recommend for starters? My nonreligious mom has been telling me to read the Bible for those above reasons as well. Maybe I will take the advice now that it is coming from someone else!</p>
<p>You read “I am charlotte Simmons”? I hated that book, a pathetic attempt at
figuring out today’s college students and their college year experiences.</p>
<p>My suggestions:
*Their eyes were watching God (you might read this in your senior year though)
*I agree with Cangel on Twain and Dickens. (Once you get past the first 1/3 of “A Tale of Two cities”, you will find yourself wanting to read more)
*Fountainhead (I didn’t read it in high school, but I wish I had)
*Pride and Prejudice would be a great summer read for girls. Frankly, I didn’t think it was such a literary milestone as some people have labeled it to be.
*Jane Eyre was my favorite book for a long time, but once again, it’s a really great read for girls. From my conversations with friends, most guys are not so much into it.
*Count of Monte Cristo, I read it in fifth grade and didn’t really like it. But looking back it was very well written. It’s kind of a guy’s book.</p>
<p>Don’t mean to sound like a sexist in my last post. But some themes are just more appealing to girls in general. Heck, you might like Jane Eyre and Pride and Prejudice more than some girls. but my guy friends thought they were boring.</p>
<p>Actually, A tale of two cities would be a great first read, as long as you make it through the first chapters. ;-)</p>
<p>thanks for the suggestions, lilyjane. ps- i’m a girl. the confusion is understandable!</p>
<p>oh, lol, sorry. Then I think you would enjoy my “chick books” hehe…I really liked Their Eyes were Watching God once I got into it.</p>
<p>I made the same thread a long time ago. It is three pages long:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=19959[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=19959</a></p>
<p>My “chick” loves both Count of Monte Cristo and Pride and Prejudice, of course it helps to see the movie, and we watch the BBC version of P&P periodically as girls’ night in - we can do quotes of that one, and track ahead to all of Colin Firth’s parts.</p>
<p>“Their Eyes” is a pretty standard AP Senior English book, although it doesn’t hurt to get a headstart - DD liked it.</p>
<p>“ATale of 2” is probably the best “serious” Dickens to start with, although I have a soft spot for Bleak House, and “Oliver Twist” is shorter and gives you a feel for Dickens’ more common themes of abuse of the common folk during the Industrial Rev - doesn’t every child in America have to read parts of Great Expectations in 9th or 10th grade?</p>
<p>To lighten this load - “The three Musketeers” (or muscatels as we call them at our house) is a 19th century book with a sly wit that reads as a much more contemporary story - and it is tearjerkingly romantic, another plus.
After you read Genesis, read Twain’s “Diary of Adam and Eve” and consider how revolutionary (and perhaps naughty) this was in late 19th century America.</p>
<p>A somewhat more modern classic that hits on all cylinders, and helps with some of those standard cultural references is “The Once and Future King”</p>
<p>I could go on and on about the impact of Jane Austen, but I will spare you. If you are sick of all this, try something from the “Thursday Next” series, it will put a whole new twist on the importance of literature, or “Hitchhiler’s Guide”, althoug hthe guys seem to like that better.</p>
<p>Happy Reading!</p>
<p>“Hard Times”.</p>
<p>You’ll learn all about school.</p>
<p>"Now, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, Sir!</p>
<p>"We hope to have, before long, a board of fact, composed of commissioners of fact, who will force the people to be a people of fact, and of nothing but fact. You must discard the word Fancy altogether. You must have nothing to do with it. You are not to have, in any object of use or ornament, what would be a contradiction in fact. You dont walk upon flowers in fact; you cannot be allowed to walk upon flowers in carpets. You dont find foreign birds and butterflies come and perch upon your crockery; you cannot be permitted to paint foreign birds and butterflies upon your crockery. You never meet with quadrupeds going up and down walls; you must not have quadrupeds represented upon walls.</p>
<p>The Commissioners have come, under the guise of “No Child Left Behind.”</p>
<p>sneakypete, if you enjoyed The Chosen, I’d recommend its sequel, The Promise. I LOVE Chaim Potok and have read all of his books.</p>
<p>You should also read Black Boy and Native Son by Richard Wright. Similar themes addressed via memoir and via novel. I’d say start with Black Boy so that you know where Wright is coming from before you read his fiction.</p>
<p>(If you want to go further into African-American lit, DuBois’ The Souls of Black Folk would be a great next step, and then The Color Purple by Alice Walker.)</p>
<p>The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck is another classic that deserves the kudos it gets. I was assigned to read the first two chapters one night in eighth grade, and I ended up staying up all night to finish the book.</p>
<p>I agree with others that while Pride & Prejudice is my second favorite book in the world, teenage guys are not likely to find it too compelling. My dad (a true Sensitive Guy) is one of the only men I’ve ever met who loves that book like women do.</p>
<p>Sense and Sensibility is also a great book, although I’m not sure if it has the literary status that Pride and Prejudice does. You might try Room With A View by E. M. Forster- it’s not on most reading lists, but is a quite interesting tale of social conformity.
Have you read Orwell? To be honest, Animal Farm and 1984 were starkly depressing, but they’re usually on the read list for high school.
I could go on with other great classics, but most of them aren’t usually read in high school.</p>
<p>THINGS FALL APART</p>
<p>by Chinua Achebe.</p>
<p>Hi Sneakypete, our guidance department has selected the book,
Smashed by Koren Zailckas as a “must read” for seniors heading off
to college in August. D has read it, I have not. She told me it was
‘powerful’ and that Koren Zailckas was like a hunderd girls in her hs.</p>