<p>Then cover your ears.</p>
<p>I’m halfway through the book, and in defense of the people who aren’t very far in, it takes a long time to read, given that it’s fairly dense/statistic-heavy. Someone posted on the Facebook group that it took her nearly an hour to read 5 pages - even the people who are interested in the subject matter haven’t exactly burned through it.</p>
<p>All you folks need to man/parent up. When this came up last year, here’s what I did to take care of it. I told the kid:</p>
<p>“Look. If you want me to pay the [expletive] tuition so you can go to [expletive] Tulane, then when Tulane tells you to read the book, you read the [expletive] book!” Done!</p>
<p>Kid opened the book for the first time on the plane to Nola, then fell asleep.</p>
<p>OMG, northwesty. I was very close to literally ROFLMAO. Good stuff.</p>
<p>Northwesty- Hysterical! Thanks for the laugh!</p>
<p>My son is just APPLYING to Tulane right now but he heard about the summer reading and decided to give the book a try. After about 9 pages he tossed it aside and said it was so dry and so dull. This is the same kid that read Dante’s Inferno, Machiavelli’s The Prince and Aristotle’s Politics for PLEASURE! </p>
<p>It would be cool if they all had to read A Confederacy of Dunces before freshman year. Some of the previous years books are amazing reads.</p>
<p>Your son sounds A LOT like mine, dolphnlvr. I think, though, that they try to select books where the author can come in and hold seminars and/or lecture. Obviously that is not the case with John Kennedy Toole, a Tulane graduate who sadly committed suicide in 1969.</p>
<p>Anyway, I guess it is a given that out of 1500 or so freshmen not everyone is going to like the reading choice. As someone said above (Vitrac?), there will several books they will have to read for their courses that they will not find riveting.</p>
<p>FC, he’s flying from FL to NOLA. I’m meeting him there on Friday.</p>
<p>Barkeep, your helicopter comment made me lol. :)</p>
<p>This is what made ME spit out my coffee: “That will be an interesting conversation in the TIDES class he is in: 1970’s and 1970’s Russian Comedy Films. :-)”</p>
<p>Thanks, GreenWaveMama.</p>
<p>OK, he has agreed to download the audiobook and listen to it during the flight. I’m pretty sure that even if he’s playing a game on his phone or iPad while he listens, <em>something</em> will get through.</p>
<p>I’ve parked the helicopter for good now. :)</p>
<p>Oops that should have read 1960’s and 1970’s Russian Comedy Films. 
I spit out my coffee when he told me what he had selected! His group was the last to register during his orientation, so there wasn’t much left.</p>
<p>Well, who knows GreenWaveMama. It might not spark anything, or he might just find it fascinating. But exposure to new things (and the sometimes obscure) is part of what college is supposed to be about. I wish it were more like that for all students, in my old-fashioned parochial opinion.</p>
<p>Agreed, FC!</p>
<p>I guess that one especially caught my eye, as you will see why. Therein lies a story that I think you will all find interesting, at least I hope so.</p>
<p>Of course you all know I majored in chemistry at Tulane, and minored in math. But I also “unofficially” minored in Russian and Southern literature (they are actually very related in themes and tone in a significant number of cases, as I stumbled upon), and even took a course or two in each in grad school. So I had (and kept) a lot of books by Russian authors, in English of course. My Russian is terrible to say the least.</p>
<p>So fast forward to jobs, marriage, two kids, my oldest a boy. They both end up being voracious readers, but he picked up my Dostoyevsky in about 9th grade and fell in love with it, and subsequently many of the other Russian authors I had. Motivated by this, he goes on to major in Russian Studies as an undergrad, and is now attending law school for free thanks to a grant based on his Russian knowledge. Not just tuition, but a generous monthly stipend that covers more than room and board.</p>
<p>So don’t let anyone ever tell you that A) these “softer” studies (with respect to jobs, etc.) are not worth pursuing; and B) that they can’t pay off somewhere down the line. We not only both got a huge amount of enjoyment from this academic discipline and had a common interest to share, but in the end he (and therefore indirectly I) “made” well into 6 figures off of it, and counting. I say and counting because it may (or may not) end up leading to his career path as well. To be determined, since he is still in law school, and has other interests besides using his Russian in his law career. But it is still on the table for sure.</p>
<p>Off topic of course, but I thought you might enjoy that.</p>
<p>FC, I love discovering these little tid bits about your life! Thanks for sharing!</p>
<p>FC, thank you so much for sharing!!!</p>