Books that you have to read before entering college

<p>I really didn't like the scarlet letter at all.
actually I didn't finish it...</p>

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Maybe I'm smart enough for them now.

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<p>I don't mean to imply that you weren't or aren't smart enough to understand the book if that's how I've came across. However, I don't think it's very intelligent or logical to condemn an entire book if you haven't even finished half of it yet. But I really don't know how you're going to finish it now that you know the ending. :D That's a tough one. </p>

<p>Maybe give the Bible a try instead. I hear Chronicles II is a good one. ;)</p>

<p>The Catcher in the Rye
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Iliad (a pain in the a** to read)
A Tale of Two Cities
The Fountainhead (only Ayn Rand book I liked, but took me years to finish :D )
A Separate Peace
Night</p>

<p>...........there are alot more that I just can't think of right now.</p>

<p>The Odessey
The Good Earth (Great Book)
Shakespeare
The Color Purple
Tom Sawyer
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Etc etc.</p>

<p>I read the World is Flat strykur! amazinggg.</p>

<p>I'm reading Dracula right now and really enjoying it. Which is a big surprise. </p>

<p>And why has no one mentioned the epitome of high school literature: Lord of the Flies. I loved it. Very strange, but also very very good.</p>

<p>^I loved dracula when I read it!
I didn't really like lord of the flies that much though.</p>

<p>Ahahaa ChaosTheory ROCKS for sticking the Elegant Universe on his list.</p>

<p>This is stuff that's all pretty much recommended but I split it up into likes/dislikes.</p>

<p>Here's what I've enjoyed (inclass or out):
1. The Plague - Camus
2. 1984 - Orwell
3. Brave New World - Huxley
4. Importance of Being Earnest (play) - Wilde (wilde = AMAZINGGGG)
5. Huckleberry Finn - Twain
6. Modest Proposal (essay) - Swift
7. Frankenstein - Shelly
8. Beloved - Morrisson
9. Oedipus trilogy - Sophocles
10. Zero: History of a Dangerous Number - no clue
11. A Fly in the Cathedral - sorry no name
12. A Clockwork Orange - Burgess
13. Master Harold and the Boys (play) - Fugard
14. In Cold Blood - Capote
15. Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury
Read some Shakespeare (all of the different types of plays)
Read either Joyce or Dickens and Austen
sooo many more</p>

<p>Things I HATED:
1. Their Eyes were Watching God - Hurston (UGH)
2. Oryx and Crake - Atwood (intersting book but I think that it may have been too blunt even for me; really showed how depraved and desensitized to sex we may become)
3. Catcher in the Rye - Salinger
4. To Kill a Mockingbird - Lee</p>

<p>There's gotta be more I just don't remember...</p>

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Modest Proposal (essay) - Swift

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<p>Lol I loved that one.</p>

<p>I <3 it too. It was one of those things where if you got it, you got it. If you didn't, well we all laughed at ya ;)</p>

<p>Actually the entire "50 Essays" book I used in AP Language was pretty sweet.</p>

<p>Hahaa I hate Eric Liu (I think that's his last name) and his "Notes of a Native Speaker" because he really was being quite hypocritical... god I miss lang a lottt.</p>

<p>Oh. Don't feel compelled to read like every great russian book out there because a) they're huge b) you'll get a lot of info/themes from just one.</p>

<p>You wanna look for perspectives, eras, important social topics. Homosexuality, suffrage/woman's empowerment, apartheid (Master Harold!), wars and war crimes (night).</p>

<p>This way you get a good historical background for a time period, the issues during it, the common social values, that sorta stuff. Which I think is far more important than having read the book. Look for themes and lessons about society at that time... learn those, not the plots.</p>

<p>What does The Importance of Being Earnest say about society and class during the Victorian era, not What eventually happens to Algernon and Jack.</p>

<p>The Kite Runner</p>

<p>This has to be the best book that I have ever read in high school! I could not put it down.</p>

<p>If you like Night you should read the Forgotten Fire, they are similarly related. I liked 1984, it was sad and suspenseful, however, there are parts where it is boring if you don't understand what the heck they are taking about (parts about the history of 1984 etc.) 1984 is very interesting though, seems like it could be terrifyingly real.</p>

<p>Our class is about to read Brave New World. I heard it is somewhat like 1984, how is it?</p>

<p>I loved Brave New World. While I enjoyed 1984, BNW is much better, in my opinion.</p>

<p>everyone kept telling me brave new world was the greatest book ever so i read it..it was good and i liked it, but i don't think it's THAT good... </p>

<p>kite runner's great, one of the best novels i've read in a long time. :D</p>

<p>read some essays by joan didion, she writes some of the best prose...love her <3 </p>

<p>read les miserables if you are feeling ambitious/want to sound smart. i've only read the first part and it's amazing...too bad it's so f'ing long.</p>

<p>I thought I liked Orwell and Huxley until I read A Handmaid's Tale by Atwood...Let me just say she blows them to bits. If you want something truly terrifying in a more modern voice, this is a great read. I feel like I should also mention (again) Ayn Rand. Great plot, memorable characters, and a whole new outlook on life; you can't go wrong. And once you've finished all 1000 something pages of Atlas Shrugged, check out The Little Prince by Exupery, you won't regret it.</p>

<p>Look at Tucker Max's reading list. Actually very good.</p>

<p>For Rutherfurd fans: I liked Russka even better than Sarum.</p>

<p>Absolutely agree with anything by Tom Friedman, esp. The World is Flat and From Beirut to Jerusalem. </p>

<p>The Handmaid's Tale by Atwood is one scary book, especially in these times. </p>

<p>Ditto 1984. Was in London riding the doubledeckers three years ago and the bus system had an advertising campaign promoting security awareness and on-board cameras. The theme on the posters said "Under the Watchful Eye" -- doubly creepy if you've read 1984.</p>

<p>Also (for those who like well-written essays):
essay and columns by E.B. White. He may be best known for his children's books, but he was a MASTER essayist. Look for old New Yorker issues (1930s-1060s). His "This is New York" (1947) about the role of the UN and peacmaking in the aftermath of WWII gave me chills when I read it a few ays after 9/11.</p>

<p>The Woman at the Washington Zoo by Marjorie Williams -- another terrific essayist. This anthology was published posthumously.</p>

<p>I loved "Their Eyes Were Watching God" (Zora Neale Hurston). It was a whole lot better than, oh, I dunno, "The Scarlet Letter".</p>

<p>My suggestions...</p>

<p>school lit:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Hamlet and then: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger</p>

<p>poetry:
Shakespeare's sonnets
Joyce
Tennyson (I love his "Ulysses" and "Crossing the Bar"... not so much "Charge of the Light Brigade")
Sassoon and Owen (especially Owen's "Anthem for a Doomed Youth")</p>

<p>light vacation reads:
any Hercule Poirot or Tommy & Tuppence (by Agatha Christie)
my personal favorites - Murder on the Orient Express, Cards on the Table, Evil Under the Sun, The Big Four, The Secret Adversary, and N or M?</p>

<p>fiction:
anything by Margaret Atwood
The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
The Zahir by Paulo Coelho (and possibly "The Alchemist")
Wicked by Gregory Maguire (if you like the musical "Wicked" or like fantasy, this one's for you)
Happiness TM by Will Ferguson</p>

<p>and in the non-fiction category:
Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy ****** (a must read)
Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner
anything by Gwynne Dyer or Noam Chomsky</p>

<p>Reading is good, especially when it's outside of school! </p>

<p>If you're one of the people who on their facebook profile under "favorite books" writes "Harry Potter, the DaVinci Code, and everything I ever read in high school lit"... SHAME!!! It's great if you love your lit books, but it shows (in a good way) when you read more than that.</p>

<p>Oh gosh....how could I forget my favorite book...The Bell Jar!</p>