Is this okay for a supplementary essay?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Harvard University
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<p>I did my supplementary essay and I chose "the list of books that you've read in the past 12 months" as my option. The following is what I did (as you can see, it's not an essay):</p>

<p>A List of Books that I’ve read in the Past Year</p>

<p>School-related Fiction (I’ve listed only the works that I enjoyed)</p>

<p>• Brave New World, By Aldous Huxley – I read this for a novel of choice project. After having read several other works of Dystopian literature (1984, Animal Farm, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Fahrenheit 451 to name a few); I can safely say that this is my favorite work of Dystopian literature.
• Frankenstein, By Mary Shelley – Lives up to its excellent reputation.
• 1984, By George Orwell – Another classic.</p>

<p>Non-school related Fiction – Just the highlights</p>

<p>• Crossroads of Twilight, By Robert Jordan – The tenth 650+ page book in the Wheel of Time series. Not that great a book, but I had to read it since I’d read the other nine.
• A Song of Ice and Fire, Books 1, 2 and 3, By George R.R. Martin – I stumbled across this while looking for a copy of one of the Wheel of Time books at the local library. The front of the book had a quote from Robert Jordan so I thought I’d read it. That was a very good decision, as this series is far superior to Jordan’s
• The Da Vinci Code, By Dan Brown – One of my (many) pet peeves is when someone refers to an anecdote from a popular film or book that I know nothing about. I hate not knowing. So I decided to read this book in the interest of avoiding that. Now I know what the fuss was all about– this is an exceptional piece of work.
• The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Tales, By Edgar Allen Poe – The master of gothic literature at his finest. Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle are my favorite writers of short fiction.
• The Collected Works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – I got this at a school yard sale in Sydney. A collection of all of Conan Doyle’s short fiction not related to Sherlock Holmes. I’ve had this book for six years, but I still go back and reread stories as I forget them. One of my all-time favorite books.
• Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, By H.P. Lovecraft –It’s pretty good. However, I was very put-off by his confederate, to put it mildly, tendencies (“Niggerman”? Who names their cat “Niggerman”?) The editor tried his best to assure the reader that people didn’t find the word “nigger” offensive back in the early 20th century. Hmmm, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that may have had something to do with the civil rights movement emerging.</p>

<p>Non-Fiction – Once again, just the highlights</p>

<p>• The Medieval Soldier, Don’t remember the author – A bit long and boring, but very informative, nonetheless.
• Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, By William Shirer – The best non-fiction book that I’ve read in the past year.
• The Wars of the Roses, By Alison Weir – Told me all I needed to know about the subject.
• Warriors of God, By James Reston – A very informative and enjoyable book centering on the interaction between Richard the Lionhearted and Saladin during the Third Crusade.
• Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story, By Chuck Klosterman – A girl at school gave me this. The central premise of the book is a 3-week road trip that Klosterman undertook in search of places where rock “stars” died. Most of the book is full of references to old Rock Stars (Lynyrd Skynnyrd? Sid Vicious?) that I know virtually nothing about (95% of what I listen to is Rap)</p>

<p>When I wrote this I was just writing what I felt/thought at the time. But now that I've gone back to it, it seems too informal and maybe a little sappy. Can anybody offer their opinion? </p>

<p>BTW, as you may have noticed the deadline for Harvard EA is today, so any comments would be greatly appreciated ASAP.</p>

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<p>I think it might be a little more purposeful for you to give your own interpretation of the books you have listed, in contrast to merely giving a typical review....</p>

<p>For instance, "A bit long and boring, but very informative, nonetheless.", is in itself a bit boring, and meaningless, in my opinion. Try and be abstract with words, even if you don't have much to say about the book. </p>

<p>As an example, and having read Frankenstein this year for Literature, here is my spin on things, whilst trying to write from your perspective...</p>

<p>"Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was a mystifying Gothic classic, to say the least, in the way it united the Romantic notions of nature with the scientific majesty of the Enlightenment period (if my memory serves me well). I truly found myself both enveloped in and stimulated by these ideas in my reading of the novel. Indeed, 'Frankenstein' most definately lives up to its stellar reputation"</p>

<p>That is probably a bit short, but I am trying to get some Physics done at the moment, so its hard to recall Frankenstein. I was also thinking, it might be better to be more detailed in your opinions of each novel, than listing every single text you have read in the past 6 months. Quality over quantity as the saying goes...</p>

<p>Anyways, I am not sure whether that might be helpful to you, but hey, at least I tried!!</p>

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<p>Well, I was trying to avoid the "review" feel to the book list because I think a lot of people do that.</p>

<p>The bit about The Medieval Soldier doesn't fit in with everything else so I think I'll just take it out.</p>

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<p>I see what you mean mate, but the way I look at things is that Harvard is asking for an essay. In other words they want to you to write, and by simply listing the books and giving a short one-liner on each one, I don't think you are satisfying the requirements..</p>

<p>Thats just my perspective though...</p>

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<p>Try to insert how they affect you - rather then I found it informative or excellent, try to put in a way it affected your thinking or something...Maybe you could list the books, and pick one or two that really interested you, and discuss why they are interesting. Of course it's an overused topic, the way to make it unique is how you apply it.</p>

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<p>There's no way for me to write an essay at this point. Hmmm, the one-line listings are there because I didn't really have much to say about the books. </p>

<p>My approach to this wasn't to write a review or give an insight into the book, but rather to reveal some of my personality/character/interests through this book list.</p>

<p>Now, with that in mind, does this "essay" effectively do that?</p>

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<p>Well I'm not a big fan of reading, so most of these books are meaningless to me. However, I'm sure that the Harvard Admissions Officer will be much more knowledgeable and interpret your personality through the books you read in some way or another - though I struggle to how, unless you give hi,/her some indication...</p>

<p>I think what SweetestSith said is perfectly correct, and was what I wanted to express with the 4 lines I wrote above (though I didn't accomplish it too well).</p>

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<p>Well I know what sweetesith, vrumchev, are saying is correct. However there were problems with that:</p>

<ol>
<li>I didn't want to write a second essay. My first one took me 2 weeks to write.</li>
<li>I really really didn't want to write a second essay.</li>
<li>"Of course it's an overused topic". The premise of my main essay is very unique (according to everyone that's read it, 15+ ppl). So, I don't want this part of my app be commonplace.</li>
</ol>

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<p>Don't worry eyezonharvard, I believe in you!!! Aim for that second essay and finish it in 2 hours, its only 500 words isn't it? Give yourself a 1 hour break, and then proof read it!</p>

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<p>Problem is - the way you are presenting it IS commonplace - I know kids who have done it that way, and if I know 2, there has to be more. </p>

<p>I feel your pain - my main essay is taking forever because it's so much more complex than anything else I wrote. And the other's I worry are to childish. These are more than a bit of a pain...</p>

<p>Anyways - if your regular essay is that stupendous prehaps that will work well to, just the bit of imput I had. </p>

<p>And if you are sticking that way, you might want to consider putting a bit more of how they affected you into the descriptions. </p>

<p>You'll be great though! From your previous posts you seem like an intelligent person - just do your best (that sounds so cliche, sorry, lol)</p>

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<p>Well, I took some of your suggestions and added more depth to the entries. I wrote mini-essays on Brave New World and Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.</p>

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<p>YAY - bet it's lovely.</p>

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<p>it seems like all the urms applying to princeton ed a few months ago have switched to harvard ea, any particular reason?...is the binding aspect unattractive?</p>

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<p>Most of us are still Princeton EA - but either A, they are applying Harvard RD, or B, as previously discussed, they have pretty much the same admissions process so what works in one usually works in another. Thus the dual forum stuff...</p>

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<p>i dont think so, because amnesia, apfreak, and a few other urm applicants have applied harvard ea when some of their older posts indicate intentions to apply princeton ed...ur a urm sweetestsith?...</p>

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<p>Sorry - missed the URM part in your post, thought you were talking about Princeton applicants in general spending time over here...</p>

<p>Nope - not unless you count 50% hungarian blood and a very large family, lol.</p>

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<p>Well, I have submitted my app. Thanks for the advice sweetestsith et vrumchev. It was greatly appreciated. </p>

<p>glorybear81-</p>

<p>I dunno if you're including me in that post, but I never had any intention of applying to Princeton ED.</p>

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<p>well thanks for applying to harvard ea instead...fewer hispanics for me to compete against i suppose</p>

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<p>I'm not a hispanic.</p>

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<p>??</p>

<p>I just submitted a blank list. No comments.
The reason I picked a booklist wasn't because it was an interesting topic or whyever anyone else would choose it.</p>

<p>I chose the topic specifically because I thought showing the books I read would be indicative of my personality.</p>