<p>Stanford is taking a page out of its students' books. Almost everyone I've met in the '09 class procrastinates as much as, or slightly less than, me - an impressive feat. I agree about the math problems. Let's go do some proofs!!! Fermat's Little Theorem might **** a few liberal arts majors off.</p>
<p>From iceman77_7 on the Yahoo Group,</p>
<p>"The books you'll have to read are Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid, Old
School by Tobias Wolff, and Madame Butterfly by David Henry Hwang."</p>
<p>"Oh yeah, everyone reads the same books. They're short reads so you're
expected to read all three."</p>
<p>Madame what? LOL, ok guys are there sparknotes for these books? If not, I'll just read them on the plane</p>
<p>It's actually "M Butterfly," not "Madame Butterfly," that we're reading. paulhomework, I suppose you can always go the movie route. =)</p>
<p>Haha, paulhomework, you only have to read one of them, and M. Butterfly is 93 pages long (or at least, so says my library website). That's a couple hours, max, so... reading it on the plane is quite feasible :)</p>
<p>So is it read one, or read all? Someone please clarify.</p>
<p>on my letter it says, "We encourage you to read all three books, but you should plan on reading at least one so that you will be able to participate in the discussion with the House Staff. Choose the one that is most appealing to you."</p>
<p>i wouldnt worry about it too much if you only read one</p>
<p>I wouldn't go the movie route with "Old School" :D</p>
<p>Annie John sounds like a dull coming of age story, while the other two seem to have a bit more promise, but are still too coming of age esque for my tastes. (I really really hate the genre, we had to read too much pseudo-literary junk in English class). I hope us SLEers get a different book list. Maybe philosophy, mmmm....</p>
<p>SLE kids still have to read one (or all) of those three books...</p>
<p>...but wait! There's more! It says that if we want to get a head start on our first few weeks of SLE reading, we should read Homer's Odyssey, the Bhagavad Gita, and Genesis in the Bible (all of those have specific translations and versions), and that Edith Hamilton's Mythology, though not required, would be a helpful resource for Fall Quarter.</p>
<p>WE're gonna have a fun month, hehe.</p>
<p>LOL @ paulhomework. yeah, never heard of those books either O.O man, I hope I find them here.</p>
<p>We never would have signed up for SLE if a bit of hard reading scared us :P But I too am worried I won't be able to find the specified versions here. Well, clearly I'll be able to get tons of Bibles since this is Nebraska, heck people hand them out on the sidewalk.</p>
<p>I was worried about the particular translations too, but turned out they were all at my local B&N. I started the Bhagavad Gita ('cause it's the one I knew the least about) and actually think it's fantastic. Mmmm... good.</p>
<p>[And that's funny about the bibles :) My family didn't have one until I bought myself one a year or so ago just for the heck of it, but it wasn't this version so I had to do it again. Yay for being, like, a third- or fourth-generation nothing]</p>
<p>entropic girl. i'm in vietnam right now so i didn't get my mailing list. are we reading the lombardo's translation of homer's odyssey? If so, I brought a copy with me. As for the other two books, I guess i'll read them when i'm back in the us on the 13th. I'm super excited for SLE. The lombardo's edition is very colloquial and easy to understand. Which version of the other two are we supposed to get?</p>
<p>In my senior yr, we read sections of the bhagavad gita in my world religion class. it is indeed very interesting. I'm a sucker for greek mythology.</p>
<p>Tobias Wolff's (he teaches at Stanford) "Old School" has nothing to do with the movie--it's about a literary-oriented NE prep schoo. It's a very quick and VERY GOOD read. I gave it to a couple teachers as gifts (ironically, the ones who wrote my recs to Stanford!) which may indicate how much I liked it. </p>
<p>As for the SLE reading, I'm going to probably forget about the Annie John book and concentrate on that. I might get to M. Butterfly...</p>
<p>Statics, please PM/email me the RSI matriculant numbers from last year--how many attended what school. Thanks.</p>
<p>Static -- it is indeed the Lombardo translation (I'm glad you like it... I've never read it before, so that bodes well). The Bhagavad-Gita is translated by Barbara Stoller Miller, the version of the Bible is the New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha, 3rd Edition. And Mythology is just by Edith Hamilton... finally, something written in English!</p>
<p>Good luck finding that stuff... but thankfully, it's only suggested summer reading. The Odyssey is probably the most time-intensive one, too [Mythology is "an excellent resource," but not required reading for the course], so if you only had to have one with you... good choice!</p>
<p>Any of you SLEer going to finish all the readings (Bhagavad Gita, Genesis, and Odyssey)? It's not necessary right? But I guess it doesn't hurt to read it beforehand so one doesn't fall too behind. The Mythology one is definitely not necessary. Although Homer alludes to many greek myths in Odyssey, you can understand the story without a strong background in mythology (use the reference at the back of the book when you encounter a stranger name).</p>
<p>As for the short reads, if I have to read one book, which one should I read? Zephyr speaks highly of Old School. Any reviews for the other books?</p>
<p>did stanford mention specific publications for the three books:M.Butterfly, Old School, Annie John (bc of page #s and all)?
I still haven't gotten the letter and since I'm international I have no idea when it will arrive....</p>
<p>and also is "Bhagavad Gita:Krishna's Counsel in Time of War" translated by Miller the correct one?</p>
<p>That's the one I have. No specific publications for the others...</p>
<p>I've heard M. Butterfly is good, but I haven't read any of 'em yet. And yeah, I think I'm gonna read all the SLE books (including Mythology, 'cause I've wanted to reread that for years)... but then, I'm at home right now, and they're interesting. It's not necessary, though, so don't worry if you don't...</p>
<p>I think all the books are pretty good. I ordered them from Amazon.com (expedited shipping), and they all were rated about 4.5 stars.</p>