[C.R-Literature]What is your favorite book?

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>My teacher had recommended the following books for me to boost my C.R. score.</p>

<p>What's your favorite one, then?</p>

<pre><code> ** American Literature **
</code></pre>

<p>Baldwin, James Go Tell It on the Mountain
Bradbury, Ray Fahrenheit 451
Cather, Willa My Antonia
Chopin, Kate The Awakening
Cormier, Robert The Chocolate War
Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage
Ellison, Ralph Invisible Man
Faulkner, William As I Lay Dying
Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby
Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter
Heller, Joseph Catch-22
Hemingway, Ernest A Farewell to Arms
Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird
London, Jack Call of the Wild
Morrison, Toni Beloved
Potok, Chaim The Chosen
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye
Steinbeck, John Of Mice And Men
Twain, Mark The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Vonnegut, Kurt Slaughterhouse-Five</p>

<pre><code> *World Literature *
</code></pre>

<p>Achebe, Chinua Things Fall Apart
Allende, Isabel House of the Spirits
Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice
Bronte, Charlotte Jane Eyre
Bronte, Emily Wuthering Heights
Camus, Albert The Stranger
Carroll, Lewis Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness
Dickens, Charles Great Expectations
Dickens, Charles David Copperfield
Forster, E.M. A Passage to India
Garcia Marquez, Gabriel One Hundred Years of Solitude
Golding, William Lord of the Flies<br>
Hardy, Thomas Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Hesse, Hermann Siddhartha
Huxley, Aldous Brave New World
Joyce, James A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Kafka, Franz The Trial
Orwell, George Animal Farm
Orwell, George 1984
Paton, Alan Cry, the Beloved Country
Remarque, Erich Maria All Quiet on the Western Front
Scott, Sir Walter Ivanhoe
Shelley, Mary W. Frankenstein
Swift, Jonathan Gulliver's Travels
Weisel, Elie Night
Weisel, Elie Dawn</p>

<p>Other Literature
Hamilton, Edith Mythology
Homer, The Odyssey
Ibsen, Henrik A Doll's House
Chekhov, Anton The Cherry Orchard
Miller, Arthur Death of a Salesman
Shakespeare, William Romeo & Juliet, Hamlet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar
Sophocles Oedipus Rex</p>

2

<p>Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby
Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter
Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness
Dickens, Charles Great Expectations
Huxley, Aldous Brave New World</p>

<p>These are what I would suggest for improving CR, although I haven’t read everything on the lists. I wouldn’t suggest things like The Odyssey, Death of a Salesman, any Shakespeare, or Oedipus Rex because those are plays or epic poems. CR passages aren’t in that form (but they are still worth reading). Likewise, I wouldn’t suggest The Catcher in the Rye, A Farewell to Arms (or any other Hemingway), As I Lay Dying, etc. because the writing styles are very spare and sometimes conversational. Their meanings are derived from more complex underlying narrative strategies.</p>

<p>When you are preparing specifically for CR, you probably want to focus on books that use “SAT words” where you can derive meaning from short, simple passages. Something like A Farewell to Arms is very simply written and has to be considered as a whole to really have meaning, and you won’t get anything like that on the SAT. (I would still suggest those books for leisure, though.)</p>

3

<p>Make sure you read ‘Of Mice and Men’ when you have some free time. I hate reading but that book was really captivating. Make sure you read it in your free time though, and not for the SAT because its structure/writing style isn’t anything like the SAT.</p>

<p>I agree with notanengineer on The Scarlet letter. I haven’t read most of those books so I can’t help much.</p>

4

<p>harry potter :stuck_out_tongue: :P</p>

5

<p>Thank you for posting and for your advise!</p>

6

<p>harry potter + the movies =<3</p>

7

<p>Last summer, I read a bunch of books and there was a noticeable improvement in my ability to read and comprehend the passages (and most of them make heavy use of SAT vocabulary).</p>

<p>I used this list to find books, and its very good: [great</a> books - book search, top 100 books](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Stay Motivated – BigFuture | College Board)</p>

8

<p>Mary Shelley- Frankenstein
Charles Dickens- A Tale of Two Cities</p>

<p>Great for SAT reading comprehension. Although I heard nowadays, CB is shifting more towards modern works for CR…</p>

9

<p>^ Bearing that in mind, you should periodically read newspapers, magazines, etc.</p>

10

<p>

</p>

<p>I agree. Current events aid CR skills more than books do.</p>

11

<p>I’ve read:
Bradbury, Ray Fahrenheit 451
Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird
Weisel, Elie Night</p>

<p>I will be reading this year (in my AP Lang class):
Miller, Arthur Death of a Salesman
Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby
Golding, William Lord of the Flies
Orwell, George 1984</p>

12

<p>My favorites
American Literature</p>

<p>Bradbury, Ray Fahrenheit 451
Ellison, Ralph Invisible Man
Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter
Hemingway, Ernest A Farewell to Arms
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye
**Vonnegut, Kurt Cat’s Cradle<a href=“I%20didn’t%20see%20this%20on%20the%20list”>/b</a></p>

<p>World Literature
Achebe, Chinua Things Fall Apart
Carroll, Lewis Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Orwell, George Animal Farm</p>

<p>I read around 25~30 books on that list.
I had a list of 15 books that I enjoyed reading… but I narrowed it down…
These are all great books. You should try to read most of them.</p>

<p>This list looks so much like my school’s English curriculum…
Anyone in my school would have 70% of the books on that list read by the time he or she graduates.</p>

13

<p>David Copperfield is terrible. It is extremely long and has no significant plot. Your time would be better spent taking 1000s of practice tests than slogging through that.</p>

14

<p>Honestly I have no idea why people think that reading “famous” works of literature will boost your CR score. JK. It will, but’s it’s INSANELY INEFFICENT. For CR, there is NOTHING that will raise your score as much as practice tests. </p>

<p>For example, I’m a runner. It’d be as if people were like “bike a lot, so you’ll get better at running!” Well, yes, biking helps your overall fitness and pain capacity, but what’s the best and fastest way to get good at running? RUNNING, not biking. </p>

<p>Similarly, what’s the best way to get good at the whole SAT (CR included)? Taking SAT practice tests, not reading difficult literature.</p>

15

<p>WORD ^</p>

<p>10char</p>

16

<p>

I agree. However, reading can’t hurt you, and these books are just so common that I strongly recommend people to read these.
You are correct that taking many SAT practice tests is the most effective way to glorify the SAT. If you are a sophomore/junior preparing for the SAT, you should probably just read for leisure than do boring SAT problems.</p>

17

<p>@rraghuraman</p>

<p>I have a complete arsenal of practice tests, and I regularly read the New York Times. However, I’ve never read too much American Literature. That is why I want to read a novel or two to improve my reading even more.</p>

<p>@leonz132</p>

<p>Thanks for recommending that list. I’ve also found it abbreviated here : <a href=“http://www.powerscore.com/sat/help/content/Suggested%20Reading%20List.pdf[/url]”>http://www.powerscore.com/sat/help/content/Suggested%20Reading%20List.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>@notanengineer \ SAT100 \ jubilee27 \ JefferyJung \ And others…</p>

<p>Thanks!
I think I’m going to start with The Great Gatsby and then move to The Scarlet Letter.</p>

18

<p>The best way to do well on CR is to be a lifelong reader. The benefit of that is that, so long that you don’t have a short attention span, it’s more entertaining than taking practice tests.</p>

<p>Of course anyone preparing, at least in the short term, for the SAT should take as many practice tests as possible, but if you make a habit of reading long before taking the SAT, you will probably do better. Reading only for the SAT? Yeah, that’s a little pointless. But a lot of these books are fairly enjoyable.</p>

19

<p>^^
I never said I’m reading only for the SAT. I am going to attend college in the US, I want to raise my overall level of reading as it’s not my first language.</p>

20

<p>Sorry, didn’t mean to imply that.</p>

<p>I was responding to the people who claim that people shouldn’t read difficult literature for the SAT by saying that the SAT is not the only reason to read literature.</p>