Saturday, July 21, 2012

College Summer Reading 2012

We are about a month away from school being back in session! I am always curious about the books that institutions choose for freshman orientation book discussions, sometimes called "common reading."  I did a little poking around, and this is what I found for this year:
Some schools don't have a selection, per se, but make recommendations for reading. UC Berkeley picks a theme every year, and this year's theme is revolution!

What did you read as a first-year student?  Did I miss your institution?  What do you think of these picks?

3 comments:

  1. I went to Brown which doesn't do required much of anything, so we didn't have a common book. Also, I graduated back when the earth was cooling, so I don't think this trend had hit yet. My stepson starts and Maryland this fall and I am really excited to see that he is going to be reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is in my to read pile (for Maryland in my Around the US tour next year...).

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  2. I'm not sure what common reading is...I don't think all Eng 101 classes read the same thing, but I could be wrong. I went to La. Tech. Required reading for my freshman ENG classes, if I remember correctly - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain, The Good Earth - Pearl Buck, The Moviegoer - Walker Percy, The Moon and Six Pence - W. Somerset Maugham.

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  3. A lot of schools require all freshmen to read the same book. Furman did it for a while, but by the time I came to work here we had stopped. I figure if a book is important enough to have that big group of students read it, maybe I should too!

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