<p>For the freshman summer assignment, I know it says the summer reading assignment is required, but I was reading in other forums, namely Georgetown's, that the professors/students don't even do anything with the book/assignment and you would be fine not even reading it. Is this true with Duke as well?</p>
<p>Oh, come on! No, they’re not going to give us a test or an essay over it, but it’s an amazing, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Just give it a chance! YOU’RE GOING TO DUKE, and I don’t care if you plan on camping out in Pratt all 4 years without ever touching an English course, you should be better than this.</p>
<p>I was just wondering, for stress reasons. I don’t want to be worrying my last two weeks of summer cramming the book in, stressed about not finishing (don’t say spread it out, because I won’t -_-). Besides, I’m getting out of freshman English anyway with AP credits.</p>
<p>Well, I actually put off my summer reading 3 years ago before I came to Duke. I ended up reading it in 2 nights because I really got into the book. If you don’t get to read it, it’s fine. You find that probably half of the freshmen class didn’t either.</p>
<p>Everyone takes writing 20, no exceptions. You can’t waive writing 20 with AP credits.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the summer reading book. Give it a shot because it might be good and you might get into it. If you don’t, no big deal - there’s one discussion on it with like 8 other students and you can stay silent the entire time if you want. It isn’t graded. My freshman year, our book had gone out of print due to lack of interest and Duke had to republish it for the class of 2011. It was chosen because it took place in Durham, but for an incoming freshman, it was one of the most boring books they could have chosen and a terrible way to introduce us to Durham. About 7/8 of the freshman class read less than 20 pages of it, and we all survived.</p>
<p>For my year, I thought My Sister’s Keeper was pretty good. As corny as it sounds, it really got me into medicine and research.</p>
<p>I have read the Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Its honestly a really good book and it won the Pulitzer Prize. I would really recommend the book to everyone who hasn’t read it.</p>
<p>Coming from a FAC (First-Year Advisory Counselor), I will be leading a discussion on the summer reading for 8 or so other freshmen, as Senator Noodles mentioned. Will it be a good experience for you to read the book? Absolutely. Am I going to be the least bit upset if the freshmen I’m assigned don’t do the reading? Nope. That being said, give the book a shot. If you like it, finish reading it for the discussion with your assigned FAC. If not, don’t stress about it.</p>
<p>i’m reading my sister’s keeper now, its pretty good, i didnt realize it was a duke book b4</p>
<p>yeah don’t worry about reading it if you don’t want to, i didn’t do it and it didn’t matter a bit since i just skipped the optional discussions</p>
<p>it’s an amazing book, not professional/academical enough to stress you
don’t take it as homework. it’s fun summer time ;)</p>