<p>How important is the part of the application in which you list the books you have read for pleasure in the past year? How many are you guys all putting down? I have seven, four of which are popular books from a series with little literary merit. I have a really strong exhibits, films, performances section...perhaps that helps balance this out?</p>
<p>Well, you know, they’re not going to reject/accept you on the basis books you read. It’s just there to help them understand who you are as a person, and to what kind of things you like; a psychological analysis, if you will.</p>
<p>Thanks! That was a helpful response. =)</p>
<p>I would really like to know if I should be including the names of the authors of the books that I list…</p>
<p>h00dr1chh, I do not list the authors and I do not think people should do. The AO uses these book to understand who you are and the authors will not help them to do that.</p>
<p>I think the list of books can well be the spotlight of one’s app, and can be a deciding factor in whether one gets accepted or not. I’m not sure whether adcoms can reject you for the books you read, but I know they can accept someone for his/her interests in books. (Remember, schools like Columbia are looking for reasons to ACCEPT an applicant, not the other way around.) I have strong reason to believe that my list of books got me here.</p>
<p>About whether to include the authors’ names, let’s be smart here. When you list Hamlet or the Iliad, there’s really little reason for putting down their authors’ names. If you do, you’re wasting your word count. But I don’t see the harm in putting down the author for more obscure works. I did, and I didn’t think the person reading it found it offensive or arrogant.</p>
<p>Be yourself. They know applicants want to impress them and don’t like pretension. At the same time, though, don’t write down too many trashy paperbacks or insignificant books without literary merit. I think the admissions officer recognizing the book is a plus.:D</p>
<p>i listed the authors…oops</p>
<p>i had a few obscure titles…so i added the authors too all books to try to keep the format consistent. i have OCD.</p>
<p>I added an author for 1 book - Marker. There are just so many books with that title, it’s impossible to determine which one I meant. For all the other ones, I just wrote the titles.</p>