<p>I'm going to be taking AP English Language as a junior next year, and now that i'm done with my APs for this year, I'd like to get a head start on some of the reading we'll be doing. My school, as far as i know, doesn't assign summer reading. Does anyone have any recommendations as to what the best books are to read for the class?</p>
<p>Reading anything that isn’t a super low grade level type book is good in my opinion as long as you’re able to understand it and delve deeper meaning out of it. </p>
<p>At my school we read Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, Grapes of Wrath, The Great Gatsby, and The Scarlet Letter.</p>
<p>This school year, we read The Scarlet Letter and Crime and Punishment… I think those are the only two things we read in their entirety. Our summer reading consisted of random books that didn’t really help.</p>
<p>I’d recommend reading anything off of the College Board top 101 list: [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>
<p>I would hold off on the Great Gatsby and other literature class big books, because otherwise you’ll have to reannotate them in class.</p>
<p>Try some EM Forster. He’s fantastic and not too cryptic either, and hardly ever read in American English classes. Room with a View is the easiest read, Howards End in the middle, and Passage to India is a bit more hardcore, boringer.</p>
<p>Well im doing lit. So far we’ve done:
-The illiad (A longass read, i personally got bored through it but if you’re into reading -1000 ways to kill people then go for it)
-Canterberry tales (though not all of it, maybe 1/2?)
-Crime and punishment (actually good!)
-Heart of Darkness (hella dense; we had to finish this by last week so i didnt actually do it and bsed annotations cause im taking a lot of AP tests)
-Trial and Death of socrates (Actually good! Esp if you’re into philosophy stuff. The republic is really good too; i read that on my own time)
-Othello (my favorite book of the year!)
-Hamlet (really good too!, though i disliked all the monologues)
-1984 (a must read. For everyone. Period. Amazing book).
-Brave New World (Really good too! Another must read for everyone book)</p>
<p>Then we did a crapload of poetry. </p>
<p>Scarlet Letter, Great Gatsby, Grapes of wrath, raisin in the sun, death of a salesman were all junior year stuff for me. Along with a bunch of other books but i dont have a list on me. </p>
<p>you guys go through hella little books if you only get through 2. I mean unless its something like the illiad, there is no reason for such slow progress. And even with the illiad, you could get through about 4 illiads by now. While still maintaining other class lessons.</p>
<p>
We’re just as prepared as some of the other classes who read a few more books, including Fountain Head which is pretty long. It’s not a big deal. We did a lot more writing than reading, which is probably best since the essays are worth more on the exam. Reading classic novels does little to help with the essays except provide literary evidence… but anybody who’s ever read a book already has that available to them.</p>
<p>I read Huck Finn, Fast Food Nation, and Bell Jar</p>
<p>SeekingUni, we probably go through as much writing as we do reading. We do have at least one essay for every book, mostly passage analysis type stuff. idk but maybe apeng is just harder at my school. We have a good english department, so thats kind of likely actually. </p>
<p>And if you think the Fountainhead is long, go see the illiad.</p>
<p>Don’t limit yourself to literary fiction, really diversify yourself in nonfiction as well. From my experience in taking the exam and doing practice multiple choice/prompts in class, the majority of what is on the test is actually nonfiction, whether memoir, political speeches, excerpts from reference texts, correspondences between people, etc.</p>
<p>So definitely keep reading your classic literature, but throw in some nonfiction or more modern stuff as well. To give you some idea, this is what we’ve read this year in my AP Lang class:
-Tess of the d’Urbervilles (Thomas Hardy)
-The Road from Coorain (Jill Ker Conway)
-An American Childhood (Annie Dillard)
-The Things They Carried (Tim O’Brien)
-One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Ken Kesey)
-A Prayer for Owen Meany (John Irving)
-The Tempest (William Shakespeare)
-Twelfth Night (William Shakespeare)
-Mrs. Dalloway (Virginia Woolf)
-The Hours (Michael Cunningham)
-In Cold Blood (Truman Capote)</p>
<p>So you can see, diverse stuff. And not all typical classic literature, though all have excellent writing.</p>
<p>I have to read mountains beyond mountains and into the wildd</p>
<p>Well seeing as this thread is about AP Language and not AP Lit, you should actually look into some non-fiction books as well. AP Language Exam focuses purely on non-fiction and analysis. Any fiction books you read in AP Lang are more preping you to take AP Lit in your senior year. Lit is much easier than Lang too!</p>