The Bottom Line: A great summer reading guide for the highschooler preparing for college, the student already in college, and readers from any walk of life.
I am eternally grateful I found this book while I’m still getting ready for college. But I still think it would be entirely worthwhile for anybody who wants to expand their horizons through books.
Reading Lists for College-Bound Students, compiled by Doug Estell and a number of collaborators through Arco, has 250 pages packed with essential information for anyone planning on college. It gives the recommended reading lists of almost 100 colleges and universities, as well as some basic info on pre-college reading. With this in hand, you can quickly see what books are viewed as necessary reading by the different colleges.
The format is very easy to use: you look up the college you’re considering – Princeton, for instance – and flip to the list, which inventories the literature that it recommends to junior and senior highschool students, or occasionally the reading program required for freshman college students. Generally the books are organized according to time period, and often each listing will give a little introduction about the overall goal of each college in recommending these books.
The first chapter talks about why reading is so important to winning the College Game, and if you haven’t been persuaded yet that literature and well-rounded reading is important, you will after you read this chapter!
The second chapter explains how to use the book and how to develop a personal reading list. The third chapter helps you decide what books to choose, and also gives a very good suggestion for keeping a book journal, with an example of a typical diary entry.
Then, on to the reading lists! The fourth chapter is a special list that gives the 100 most recommend books by colleges. This is an excellent resource for someone who wants the nitty-gritty of what universities want you to read. After this chapter, we find all the lists of the various colleges. The books, for the most part, are great literature and vital reading for a well-rounded education.
Why should I, a highschooler preparing for college, read this book?
As the introductory chapter of this book says, reading is essential in College Preparation. “Your success in college depends on your reading:
- It improves your vocabulary.
- It makes you a better writer.
- It helps you understand yourself and others, as well as the past and present societies you will be studying.
- It provides you with the background to succeed in college.”
The chapter goes on to explain how reading relates to each of these points, and how these skills will help you in your college experience. Please, start your quest for classics NOW, before you get to college. You will be so well-informed and so well-read that all your peers will be begging you for your secret, and you can smile smugly and say, “I did my homework – I read Reading Lists for College-Bound Students!”
Why should I, a student already in college, read this book?
The books on the reading lists will give you an idea of what books you’ll be encountering in the coming years of college. In addition, it will tell you what books have been the most influential in shaping our world. So if you’re wondering why so many things in our culture are very negative and pessimistic, you’ll quickly find out as you read a lot of the books on these lists!
Why should I, as an adult FINISHED with school (thank heaven!), read this book?
You want to be a well-rounded person, don’t you? This is your opportunity to actually ENJOY all those books you slugged through in high school. Now, as a mature, more thoughtful adult, you’ll be able to understand the concepts better, and will be able to appreciate the philosophies and messages that might not have occurred to you when you were a teenager. By reading all those books you never were able to fully enjoy before, your world view will be complete – you will have read the best that literature has to offer!
Literature is such an important part of college and life, even if you aren’t majoring in English. You will have to read some of these books anyways, so why not get ahead of the game? Reading Lists for College-Bound Students is a wonderful tool for finding the best and most important books of our time. There really is no reason not to check this great resource out!
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