<p>I took a course on poverty my first year and remember enjoying, bittersweetly, the books I read. I can’t remember if Coming of Age in Mississippi or American Dream was the better narrative, but both were interesting. If you’re actually interested in the subject matter, Patterson’s “America’s Struggle…” is very detailed. OTOH we had to read Agee’s “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” which I did not care for, and for another class I read Nickel and Dimed which the class as a whole thought was horrible.</p>
<p>I just read some Moliere for a Western Civ class, it was short and entertaining (he wrote plays for Louis XIV).</p>
<p>I’m a math major, so I suppose I’m not the best person for this (best pre college applicable reading)… I haven’t taken any other classes with books I might recommend.</p>
<p>OH wait I took a History of UVA course and there’s a guy who wrote a fantastic book on the subject who guest lectured, The Corner: A History of Student Life at UVA. I suppose that would be my #1 pick for you to read. ;)</p>
<p>As far as personal reading I’ve done at college, I just read Rebecca and Rowena (on the Lawn! last semester), which is a sequel to Ivanhoe. If you haven’t read the latter, I would recommend that (I read it during a power outage when it was assigned reading due the next day in HS - I tend to chew through books that are interesting to me, but it isn’t exactly short), and the sequel is typical English humour, which I am particularly fond of.
Both are available free online,
[Ivanhoe</a>, by Sir Walter Scott](<a href=“http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/scott/walter/ivanhoe/]Ivanhoe”>http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/scott/walter/ivanhoe/)
[Rebecca</a> and Rowena, A Romance Upon Romance](<a href=“http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/books/rebecca.html]Rebecca”>hicom.net)
I also love Flaubert, and am also reading The Golden Compass. If there are any ridiculous popular books like that you’ve always wanted to read, you should go for it (why not? …5 people you meet in Heaven? Life of Pi? etc). James Joyce’s Araby is a great short story as well, I just had a conversation with a friend (Eng major) and stepdad (Eng ABP) and we all agreed it’s our favorite. Also available free online, [Fiction:</a> Araby](<a href=“http://fiction.eserver.org/short/araby.html]Fiction:”>http://fiction.eserver.org/short/araby.html) Besides Ivanhoe in high school, the only book I could really tolerate was Siddhartha, of course also available online [Siddhartha</a>, by Hermann Hesse](<a href=“http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2500/2500-h/2500-h.htm]Siddhartha”>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse)</p>
<p>Hope that gives you some ideas at least about what you want to read 
I do really recommend the UVA book though.</p>