<p>I'm a college student majoring in Economics. Summer's coming up and I plan on doing some enlightening myself.</p>
<p>As parents with lotsa life experience, I believe you know some great books to recommend me that I should read before getting out college. I'm looking for books that deal with economy, politics, and society (i.e. Alvin Toffler books), and books on finance and basic investment and business are also welcome (i.e. Blue Ocean Strategy). Fiction, Satire, anything can go and books that are not overly complicated yet deep in meaning are best preferred. Something that most every college students read for the sake of becoming more intelligent and a critical thinker. </p>
<p>I don't want any self-aid books such as dummy or idiot series. I'm not looking for study aid books.</p>
<p>After looking through some of the recommendation list, I will place mass orders. If possible, can you please recommend me some online bookstore that sell cheap used copies of the books?</p>
<p>The Catcher in the Rye
1984
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Animal House
Of Mice and Men
The Grapes of Wrath
Babbitt
Elmer Gantry
The Jungle</p>
<p>I'm sure your library has a pre-printed list.</p>
<p>I agree whole-heartedly with The Catcher in the Rye (J.D. Salinger) and 1984 (George Orwell) in particular as being superb novels you should definitely read. I'd furthermore add to that list Brave New World (Aldous Huxley), We (Yevgeny Zamyatin), and Crime and Punishment (Fyodor Dostoyevsky).</p>
<p>Also, although I haven't read them, Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury) and Catch-22 (Joseph Heller) are also supposed to be excellent.</p>
<p>Freakonomics and Nickeled and Dimed in the US and a book my daughter read for AP Econ, that had to do with the arrival of capitalism in Albania, some other smart CC parent will remember the title I'm certain.</p>
<p>I'm sorry, I misread your post, I thought you were a high school student. The books I recommended are still good, maybe not what you are looking for. A little dated, but how about Advise and Consent?
I just read Boomsday, and it was hilarious for about half the book, but you may not need that much encouragement :).</p>
<p>You could also check out your local Goodwill or Salvation Army - I always find they have plenty of copies of those "classic" books that I haven't read in an English class yet, but I feel are important to read to further my education. And they're only a quarter to 50 cents each!</p>
<p>A Civil War: Army Vs. Navy by John Feinstein
A Sense of Honor by James Webb
Absolutely American by David Lipsky
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Remarque
Annapolis Autumn by Bruce Fleming
Bacalao by J.T. McDaniel
Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose
Becoming a Leader the Annapolis Way by Johnson and Harper
Biggest Brother: The Life of Dick Winters by Larry Alexander
Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden
Blind Man's Bluff: Untold Story of American Submarine Espionage by Sontag
Brief Points by Ross McKenzie
Chesty by John Hoffman
Class 29: The Making of U.S. Navy Seals by John Roat
Darkside by P.T. Deutermann
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Faith of My Fathers by John McCain
Fields of Fire by James Webb
First Class: Women Join the Ranks at the Naval Academy by Sharon H. Disher
Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley
Flight of the Intruder by Stephen Coonts
Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae by Steven Pressfield
Gods and General by Jeff Shaara
Guns of August, The by Barbara Tuchman
Hunt for Red October, The by Tom Clancy
In Harm's Way by Doug Stanton
If I Die in a Combat Zone by Tim O'Brien
Jarhead by Anthony Swofford
Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Last Full Measure, The by Jeff Shaara
Letters from Annapolis by Anne Marie Drew
Making the Corps by Thomas E. Ricks
Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian
Message to Garcia
Naval Academy Candidate Book by William Smallwood
Nightingale's Song by Robert Timburg
On War by Karl Von Clausewitz
Once an Eagle by Anton Myrer
One Bullet Away, The Making of a Marine Officer by Nathaniel Fick
Pentagon's New Map, The by Thomas P.M. Barnett
Return of Philo T. McGiffin, The by David Poyer
Rogue Trident by John Hindinger
Rogue Warrior by Richard Marcinko
Run Silent, Run Deep by Edward Beech
Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence
Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein
Sun-Tzu: The Art of War by Sun Tzu
Target Lock by James Cobb
The Official United States Naval Academy Workout book by Flach and Peck
Things They Carried, The by Tim O'Brien
We Were Soldiers Once and Young by Moore and Galloway</p>
<p>Just a recommendation- go to your library! Don't go buy the book until after you've read it and loved it. Take the try-before-you-buy approach, it's wonderful.</p>
<p>For an economics major I second Freakonomics if you haven't read it yet. Also, The Tipping Point. Yes, Atlas Shrugged should be part of the Economics curriculum (but probably is not).</p>
<p>I loved Catcher in the Rye, (so jaded that it's noble) but I'm under the impression that Salinger's other stories weren't that good and are not worth reading,....</p>
<p>I, on the other hand, loathed The Catcher in the Rye, I thought Holden Caufield was a whiny idiot. I thought the short stories were reasonably tolerable, though I remember nothing about them except that they weren't as awful.</p>
<p>The Wordly Philosophers by Robert Heilbroner would give you an excellent entree into the theories (and times) of great economic thinkers of the past.</p>