<p>I am a rising First Year in the CLAS and I know that there is no reading requirement. This is the first time in about 10 years that I have not had a required reading, so I am asking rising Second Years and older to suggest books that us incoming first years would benefit from or enjoy. If you read a book for a particular class that you thought was helpful, please tell us! Or, if there was a particular book for a class that you felt was difficult to read/understand in the time given, it might be beneficial for us to start reading it to get a handle on it before school begins. I know that each class requires different readings, but I think it would be great to have some suggestions from "the pros". Rising First Years, maybe we could start a summer book club and discuss some of the suggested books!</p>
<p>One of my favorite books that I read for an environmental politics class was Michael Pollan’s “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” It was quite an insight into post WWII industry, food politics and energy consumption. I didn’t really feel it was a “preachy” or “hippie” book like many environmental books can be, I just found it to be really insightful.</p>
<p>Thanks so much! Sounds very interesting.</p>
<p>My suggestion is read something non-fiction that interests you. I’m really into spaceflight and aviation, so I’ve been reading a lot of biographies and “stories” of spacelfights (current reading an Apollo 11 mission book) and aviation (one of my favorite books is about a career Navy female jet pilot). Not only will it expand your horizons, but you can glimpse into what you think you love. Books about possible future careers are great too, you can see other people’s memoirs about the chosen path.<br>
You’re more likely to get something out of reading something you’re interested in/enjoy, rather than just reading to become educated.</p>
<p>I took a course on poverty my first year and remember enjoying, bittersweetly, the books I read. I can’t remember if Coming of Age in Mississippi or American Dream was the better narrative, but both were interesting. If you’re actually interested in the subject matter, Patterson’s “America’s Struggle…” is very detailed. OTOH we had to read Agee’s “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” which I did not care for, and for another class I read Nickel and Dimed which the class as a whole thought was horrible.</p>
<p>I just read some Moliere for a Western Civ class, it was short and entertaining (he wrote plays for Louis XIV).</p>
<p>I’m a math major, so I suppose I’m not the best person for this (best pre college applicable reading)… I haven’t taken any other classes with books I might recommend.</p>
<p>OH wait I took a History of UVA course and there’s a guy who wrote a fantastic book on the subject who guest lectured, The Corner: A History of Student Life at UVA. I suppose that would be my #1 pick for you to read. ;)</p>
<p>As far as personal reading I’ve done at college, I just read Rebecca and Rowena (on the Lawn! last semester), which is a sequel to Ivanhoe. If you haven’t read the latter, I would recommend that (I read it during a power outage when it was assigned reading due the next day in HS - I tend to chew through books that are interesting to me, but it isn’t exactly short), and the sequel is typical English humour, which I am particularly fond of.
Both are available free online,
[Ivanhoe</a>, by Sir Walter Scott](<a href=“http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/scott/walter/ivanhoe/]Ivanhoe”>http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/scott/walter/ivanhoe/)
[Rebecca</a> and Rowena, A Romance Upon Romance](<a href=“http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/books/rebecca.html]Rebecca”>http://www.hicom.net/~oedipus/books/rebecca.html)
I also love Flaubert, and am also reading The Golden Compass. If there are any ridiculous popular books like that you’ve always wanted to read, you should go for it (why not? …5 people you meet in Heaven? Life of Pi? etc). James Joyce’s Araby is a great short story as well, I just had a conversation with a friend (Eng major) and stepdad (Eng ABP) and we all agreed it’s our favorite. Also available free online, [Fiction:</a> Araby](<a href=“http://fiction.eserver.org/short/araby.html]Fiction:”>http://fiction.eserver.org/short/araby.html) Besides Ivanhoe in high school, the only book I could really tolerate was Siddhartha, of course also available online [Siddhartha</a>, by Hermann Hesse](<a href=“http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2500/2500-h/2500-h.htm]Siddhartha”>The Project Gutenberg eBook of Siddhartha, by Herman Hesse)</p>
<p>Hope that gives you some ideas at least about what you want to read 
I do really recommend the UVA book though.</p>
<p>For those of you interested in economics, this is a very interesting book written by the chief economist for a major bank, and the world’s foremost expert on the energy industry.</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Why Your World Is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller: Oil and the End of Globalization: Jeff Rubin: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Your-World-About-Whole-Smaller/dp/1400068509/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246860883&sr=8-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Your-World-About-Whole-Smaller/dp/1400068509/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1246860883&sr=8-1)</p>
<p>I don’t know if you’re into environmental sustainability, but we read this book called Ecotopia by Ernest Callenbach for one of my USEMs first year. I really enjoyed it. It was written in the 1970’s and it based on the author’s projections about what life would be like in the 2000’s, so it might seem a little silly at first but it’s definitely worth reading if you are interested in that sort of thing. </p>
<p>Another interesting read–The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs (we read this in one of my politics classes)</p>
<p>Freakonomics is good if you haven’t read it already.</p>
<p>Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman is some good nonfiction…talking about the perfect storm of climate change (hot), globalization (flat), and overpopulation (crowded)</p>
<p>Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon is an absolutely ridiculously crazyawesme novel (all 1024 pages of it)</p>
<p>I think in today’s world, it’s definitely a good idea to know a little history regarding the Middle East. The Middle East will never be fruits and daisies, so if you know a little about the past, it will help you better understand what’s happening now (and events in the future).</p>
<p>Treacherous Alliance by Trita Parsi; book focuses on relations between Israel, the US, and Iran from 1948 onwards (Israel is created/start of first Arab-Israeli war). My favorite assigned book of the 9342783283 I had for my ME class.</p>
<p>Babylon by Bus: Or, the true story of two friends who gave up their valuable franchise selling YANKEES SUCK T-shirts at Fenway to find meaning and adventure in Iraq, by Ray LeMoine The title says it all. True Story. Great book, I finished it in one sitting during finals week.</p>
<p>The Looming Tower is also a great book for some perceptive on 9/11 & al-qaeda.</p>
<p>btw the “history of uva” class is:
LASE 1605 - History of Mr. Jefferson’s University</p>
<p>The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon. I didn’t read it at UVA, but in an AP English class back in high school, and I thought it was a great book. Also, Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (which can sometimes be a difficult read because of the style in which it’s written, but is funny/amusing).</p>