<p>Can anyone name specific authors whose books are similar to the text in CR?</p>
<p>I don't know about being similar in text, but Jane Eyre is a good read and is packed with SAT words..</p>
<p>Yeah I was just searching the forums for CR help, and someone brought up Jane Eyre. So if two people brought it up, I'll definitely look into it.</p>
<p>Goto the test prep section in Borders/Barnes n Noble. They have "SAT-word novels". They have the definitions right in the book. I know Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte has like 700 SAT words in it. I really don't buy into that whole "read to learn vocab" thing. Just memorizing words works for me. Reading newspapers and upper-class magazines helps with some SAT words too.</p>
<p>It isn't necessarily about learning SAT words (although that is a plus), I guess it is just about boosting my overall reading comprehension, to help me better understand the passages in the CR section. But when I say "better my reading comprehension", I don't mean I just want to go out and buy any lengthy, high level book like a Tom Clancy novel or something. I'd like something that has kind of similar text to the CR text. Do you know what I mean?</p>
<p>I'll bite. When I first took the SAT/ACT, I was scoring 680/32 on the Reading sections. After I had read the Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand), I scored a 770/36. I don't read many books, and there wasn't too long of a time period between the tests, so I think those books really helped me get into a reading zone and understand passages better.</p>
<p>I am the opposite of ^. I can read easily for extended periods- 6 hours of reading while in a car- but it is just that the SAT ones are soooo pointless to even waste the brain power in thinking about what the author is getting at.</p>
<p>TIME magazine is good for that, and you can catch up on the news. They use big words a lot, and it's interesting reading, though it's not a novel. Great for people with short attention spans.</p>
<p>Yeah, maybe magazines can help too. Because on practice tests, I often find myself losing concentration in the middle of a passage. I'm not sure if it because I have a short attention span as you said, or the passages are just incredibly boring/pointless so I can't focus anymore like NervesofJelly said. lol</p>
<p>yeah the same exact thing happens to me Big B, its is extremelyyyyy annoying</p>
<p>shaquille o'neal's autobiography comes highly recommended.</p>
<p>I personally didn't read books to prepare for CR, but I heard that Virginia Woolf and Charles Dickens can be helpful.</p>
<p>Also, the major newspapers and magazines can be very useful in improving CR. Believe it or not, Sports Illustrated is on the recommended magazine list as well.</p>
<p>Just read any book you find interesting</p>
<p>Except the "Hardy Boys" :)</p>
<p>My summer personal reading list is: War and Peace, Les Miserables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Man in the Iron Mask, and Anna Karenina.</p>
<p>^Good luck with that. I can imagine you with bloodshot eyes, a hunchback, and permanent mental instability from reading so many long and boring books at once.</p>
<p>If you're looking to improve your CR score, you should practice CR sections. Real authors have almost no relevance.</p>
<p>If you're wanting to improve your vocab, just study a sheet that lists common roots, prefixes, and suffixes. That takes care of most of the vocab questions.</p>
<p>I'm reading a bunch of Classics that I have yet to read for whatever reason. I have already completed 1984, sorrow of war, and I'm working on Catch-22 which is taking me forever for some reason.</p>
<p>I read Crime and Punishment recently (summer work), and it will probably end up being my only preparation for critical reading / vocab. By the way, I must have circled nearly 200 words, and the book itself is not too much of an easy read, so it will help with critical reading too.</p>