I wasn't sure where to put this thread but since I visit the library regularly and I am a senior next year what are some good books to have in your history?
Well, I dunno if its going to be of any use in college, its not a classic or anything, its actually quite commercial now, but I absolutely loved "The Perks of Being a Wallflower". I find it a very smart and at the same time simple book. Perhaps you will like it, and if you haven't seen the movie yet, make sure you read the book first, tho they are both great in my opinion. Take care.
why does it need to be before college? the only two reasons to put a deadline like that on a book are that you're worried you won't have time to read once you get there (not necessarily true, though my reading did slow down when I started college) or that you're worried you won't be "well read" enough once you get there, which is silly because there's not like a committee or anything to judge you on how much literature you've taken in and personally, my advice would differ depending on why you have to read it before college.
To Kill a Mockingbird, Les Miserables, 1984, Homage to Catalonia, Animal Farm, War and Peace, Bleak House, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, the Millennium trilogy (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). There are a hell of a lot that might be relevant. And it definitely depends on what you study as to whether or not they'll be helpful.
I second Animal Farm. Also would recommend Dr. Zhiago, Great Expectations, Don Quixote, A Farewell to Arms, Homer's the Illiad, Beowulf, and Metamorphisis.
There are three main categories of books that I think are worth reading as a high school student. The first are books about your field. For example, I read several books in high school about physics which had sections on major discoveries in the past 100 years. This made my "modern" physics class relatively easy because I already had a road map in my head of what we were going to cover. Similarly, an English major would probably want to read Hemingway and the like, while a philosophy major would want to read Plato and Kierkegaard. The second are books that challenge you to think. The fact of the matter is you will remember relatively few of the specifics of what you read even a few years down the road, but you will benefit from learning how to think critically. Obviously this is where most people mention "the classics" like The Great Gatsby or One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest; however, I found that these books did relatively little for me. I've found that the works that are best for this category are those that speak to you personally because then you have some motivation for digging into them. (It's worth noting that it's not just books that can fill this role! Some people find that other media, like movies or even video games, speak to them more.) The goal here is to learn how to analyze, learn from, and present your ideas about the work. Lastly, there's pleasure reading. You can have all sorts of lofty goals in regards to reading, but if you're bored with the books you've chosen, then it's easy to stop reading altogether. So even if your goal is to read every book by Hemingway, don't be afraid to throw in some Harry Potter if it gives you the motivation to pick up a book and read.
Goddamn I love Don Quixote. I like to read a "challenge" book every few months and that was one of them and it was just so much fun. If you're looking for you know "classics" I'd throw my vote in for Moby Dick and The Grapes of Wrath which are both awesome, but you don't have to read anything you don't want to read before college. Just read whatever you want and enjoy it. That's the important part.
Hmmm, not sure how to answer this, as my back-catalogue is quite small, to be honest. Vonnegut seems quite popular among college-age people [especially Slaughterhouse-Five which I would recommend, as well as Mother Night.] I might also recommend Long Day's Journey Into Night, though it's a play, I read this on my own the summer before eleventh grade and despite having gone through it only once it's among the few works, so far, that's left a deep scar on my mind. Sorry to derail the conversation, but I was curious which edition(s) did you both read for Don Quixote? I've been very eager to read more pre-twentieth [and nineteenth] century literature and, of course, this is one of my numerous targets.
I read a lot of books and comics for my own entertainment I have a strong interest in human happiness and positive psychology in general
When I entered college, no one asked me what books I'd read. The only books you have to read for college are the assigned reading for your classes, and it won't help to read them before even if you happen to know which books will be assigned to you. If you want to read some stuff to gain background knowledge, that's a different matter. And it depends a lot on your major. In my case, I read used psych textbooks and medical genetics journals, but I did that for fun - I wasn't thinking about university at the time.
The edition I went with? Amazon.com: Don Quixote (9781613821480): Miguel De Cervantes: Books It was free on Kindle!
ACK! The K-word. (Hisssssss.) x_____x How was the translation, though? This edition seems rather non-descript about those details.
I think I read this one Don Quixote (Penguin Classics): Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, John Rutherford, Roberto Gonzalez Echevarria: 9780142437230: Amazon.com: Books It's pretty readable, plus its annotated if you get confused. Pretty cool when a book from nearly 400 years ago can still make you laugh today.
Yeah, my impression has been that Penguin's translations are quite reliable [probably would be one of top considerations, along with Oxford's, once I finally decide to read it.] Definitely. I think "classic" literature tends to get an unfair reputation for being dry and lifeless.
The Giver by Lois Lowry Read it in middle school and absolutely loved it. Then one of my high school teachers said "we're prepping you for college because there you'll read the hard books like The Giver" and I'm sitting there like "um...teacher, I've already read it and it's one of my favorite books. ...Sorry?" :lol: Although, I'm not recommending it as a must for college, just as a must because I think it's good. The book never came up once while I was at Uni. All people talked about was Dickens, Twain and the like.
Seems to be checking out. Looks good to me, the Ebook's well crafted. I just use my Kindle app because I'm too cheap to buy books.
