Monday, June 25, 2007

College Board's 101 Suggested Reads for College Students

Lots of dead white guys on this list. Here is the list and my status of reading them:

Beowulf High school and liked it
Achebe, Chinua Things Fall Apart High school--not bad.
Agee, James A Death in the Family Haven't read it.
Austen, Jane Pride and Prejudice College--not bad
Baldwin, James Go Tell It on the Mountain Haven't read it.
Beckett, Samuel Waiting for Godot College, loved it.
Bellow, Saul The Adventures of Augie March Haven't read it.
Brontë, Charlotte Jane Eyre High school, didn't like then--probably should re-read it.
Brontë, Emily Wuthering Heights High school, see Jane Eyre
Camus, Albert The Stranger College, liked Billy Joel's The Stranger a lot better.
Cather, Willa Death Comes for the Archbishop Haven't read it.
Chaucer, Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales High school and College--liked it both times.
Chekhov, Anton The Cherry Orchard High school--not bad.
Chopin, Kate The Awakening Haven't read it.
Conrad, Joseph Heart of Darkness College--liked it.
Cooper, James Fenimore The Last of the Mohicans High school--really liked it then, like it even more now.
Crane, Stephen The Red Badge of Courage High School--liked it.
Dante Inferno High school--it was okay.
de Cervantes, Miguel Don Quixote High school--pretty good.
Defoe, Daniel Robinson Crusoe High school and college--OK
Dickens, Charles A Tale of Two Cities College--could have done without.
Dostoyevsky, Fyodor Crime and Punishment College--hated it.
Douglass, Frederick Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass College--nice history lesson.
Dreiser, Theodore An American Tragedy Haven't read it.
Dumas, Alexandre The Three Musketeers High school--loved it.
Eliot, George The Mill on the Floss Haven't read it.
Ellison, Ralph Invisible Man College--liked it.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo Selected Essays College--only read some of them.
Faulkner, William As I Lay Dying Haven't read it.
Faulkner, William The Sound and the Fury High school--don't get it.
Fielding, Henry Tom Jones Haven't read it.
Fitzgerald, F. Scott The Great Gatsby High school and college--still not thrilled with it.
Flaubert, Gustave Madame Bovary Haven't read it.
Ford, Ford Madox The Good Soldier Haven't read it.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von Faust College--not bad.
Golding, William Lord of the Flies High School--could have done without reading it.
Hardy, Thomas Tess of the d'Urbervilles Haven't read it.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel The Scarlet Letter High school--OK
Heller, Joseph Catch 22 College--OK
Hemingway, Ernest A Farewell to Arms High school--good
Homer The Iliad High School-loved it.
Homer The Odyssey High School-loved it.
Hugo, Victor The Hunchback of Notre Dame Haven't read it.
Hurston, Zora Neale Their Eyes Were Watching God Haven't read it.
Huxley, Aldous Brave New World Haven't read it--believe it or not.
Ibsen, Henrik A Doll's House Haven't read this one.
James, Henry The Portrait of a Lady College--I don't get Henry James.
James, Henry The Turn of the Screw Haven't read it.
Joyce, James A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Haven't read it.
Kafka, Franz The Metamorphosis Haven't read it.
Kingston, Maxine Hong The Woman Warrior Haven't read it.
Lee, Harper To Kill a Mockingbird High School (and a dozen times since)--one of my all time favorites--a desert island must have.
Lewis, Sinclair Babbitt Haven't read it.
London, Jack The Call of the Wild High school--good book.
Mann, Thomas The Magic Mountain Haven't read it.
Marquez, Gabriel García One Hundred Years of Solitude College--I don't get teh appeal of Marquez, although as story--not bad.
Melville, Herman Bartleby the Scrivener Haven't read it.
Melville, Herman Moby Dick High school--liked it.
Miller, Arthur The Crucible High school--good.
Morrison, Toni Beloved College--could take it or leave it.
O'Connor, Flannery A Good Man is Hard to Find Haven't read it.
O'Neill, Eugene Long Day's Journey into Night Haven't read it.
Orwell, George Animal Farm College--liked it.
Pasternak, Boris Doctor Zhivago High school--probably should read again.
Plath, Sylvia The Bell Jar Haven't read it.
Poe, Edgar Allan Selected Tales High school--like Poe.
Proust, Marcel Swann's Way Haven't read it.
Pynchon, Thomas The Crying of Lot 49 Haven't read it.
Remarque, Erich Maria All Quiet on the Western Front Haven't read it--oddly enough.
Rostand, Edmond Cyrano de Bergerac Haven't read it.
Roth, Henry Call It Sleep Haven't read it.
Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye High School--but what is the damn appeal of this book? Caufield is whiny wimp.
Shakespeare, William Hamlet High School--loved it.
Shakespeare, William Macbeth High school--not my favorite, but good
Shakespeare, William A Midsummer Night's Dream High school--great comedy.
Shakespeare, William Romeo and Juliet High school--ok.
Shaw, George Bernard Pygmalion High school--not bad.
Shelley, Mary Frankenstein Haven't read it--believe it or not.
Silko, Leslie Marmon Ceremony Haven't read it--never heard of it.
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Haven't read it.
Sophocles Antigone College--didn't like it much.
Sophocles Oedipus Rex High school--OK
Steinbeck, John The Grapes of Wrath High school--good read.
Stevenson, Robert Louis Treasure Island High School--not bad.
Stowe, Harriet Beecher Uncle Tom's Cabin College--OK.
Swift, Jonathan Gulliver's Travels High School--not bad.
Thackeray, William Vanity Fair Haven't read it.
Thoreau, Henry David Walden High school and college--didn't like either time.
Tolstoy, Leo War and Peace College--well Navy before college--one very long deployment.
Turgenev, Ivan Fathers and Sons Haven't read it.
Twain, Mark The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn High school--loved it.
Voltaire Candide Haven't read it.
Vonnegut, Kurt Jr. Slaughterhouse-Five College--OK
Walker, Alice The Color Purple Haven't read it.
Wharton, Edith The House of Mirth Haven't read it.
Welty, Eudora Collected Stories Haven't read it.
Whitman, Walt Leaves of Grass High School and College--although I am not sure I have read it cover to cover.
Wilde, Oscar The Picture of Dorian Gray Haven't read it.
Williams, Tennessee The Glass Menagerie High school--pretty good.
Woolf, Virginia To the Lighthouse Haven't read it.
Wright, Richard Native Son Haven't read it.

The tally

High school--33
High School and College--4
College--18
Haven't read it--42

So I have read more that I haven't, but it seems like I was a pretty well read high schooler, right?

This is a pretty ambitious list though.

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