<p>Is the summer reading necessary to complete (i.e. does it count as a grade)? I haven't gotten very far in this bore of a book. I'm in the honors program, if that makes any difference.</p>
<p>Unless policies have changed, it’s not required. There are discussions in the first week that you can go to, but those aren’t mandatory either. I didn’t make it through ours either…</p>
<p>Perhaps it’s indelicate of me to say so, but if you will be in the HONORS program at UNC, it might be a good idea to make a commitment to read even the boring books. And no, a grade isn’t attached to the summer assignment, but there is a hope among your professors that you possess the intellectual curiosity and initiative to make it through the entire book, if only to understand why it might have been chosen as the freshman reading. Many of today’s high-achieving high school students finesse their AP courses on “study guides” and Spark Notes; at UNC, those students may be in for a brutal awakening, especially those enrolled in honors classes. (I have no idea whether that’s your own history in high school, but the trend is escalating.) It’s very, very easy to find yourself at midterms, realizing that your professors expected you to actually undertake the readings on your syllabi, and so those first exams come as quite a shock. Just a thought, before you begin college next week… UNC is a great school-- here’s to a wonderful four years.</p>
<p>Addedum: I just remembered that the reading for UNC this year is The Shallows, which is basically a look at whether the internet and the act of “surfing” for information is weakening the current college generation’s ability to read deeply. Perhaps all of you incoming freshmen would do well to finish this boring book, to see whether there is merit in Nicholas Carr’s argument (as I understand it).</p>
<p>If you can’t even make it through a 250 page pop science book, do you really belong in college?</p>
<p>I find this absolutely hilarious given the contents of the book.</p>
<p>I thought it was pretty good. You should read it.</p>
<p>(In fact, during summers you should read more than one book.)</p>