Summer reading suggestions

[waitinginvain?]

Hi everyone. I made it though my first year of graduate school. But my GPA is only a 3.41. I need to do better. So I'm planning to develop my vocabulary over the summer and to read even more than I usually do. Can anyone recommend any books/journals/authors to aid my intellectual development? I've never taken classes in philosophy or literary criticism--both of which I suspect would be helpful. I've heard somewhere that Bertrand Russell's A History of Western Philosophy should be required reading. Does anyone agree? I am a dramatic writing student, by the way. Thank you for your suggestions!

[somethinbruin]

I don't have book recommendations, per se, but I thought you might want to consider taking a Yale open course or something from Coursera over the summer. Yale's open English courses has an introductory literary theory, and getting some theory in your background might be really helpful. Bonus: you can do the whole thing on your own schedule.

 

Here is their website: http://oyc.yale.edu/english

[KindaHardWorker]

Fight Club.

[waitinginvain?]

Thank you for the Yale link. I see MIT, Harvard, Notre Dame and some others also have open course ware. I followed your link and started watching the video. It's so amazing to be able to watch a lecture given by a Yale professor for free. Thank you for the link!

[Larri]

Hannah Arendt - The Human Condition

 

G. D. Roberts - Shantaram (For a lighter, yet educational read)

 

Neil MacGregor - A History of the World in 100 objects

 

Edward Said - Orientalism

 

 

All great for very different reasons

[Guest |||]

If youre interested in improving your vocab, the most efficient idea might be to read actual papers relevant to the field you'll be entering.

 

If you want to read for leisure however, with a scientific twist here are a few of my favorites

 

The Selfish Gene by Dawkins, a book that had a great impact on me personally.

 

The Blank Slate by Pinker

 

If you want something a bit less academic but with a good range of language

 

Lolita by Nabokov, possibly my favorite book

 

Crime & Punishment by Dostoevsky

[waitinginvain?]

Thank you both for the lists. I'll check my library for these titles. By the way, Lolita is my daughter's favorite, too.

[Guest |||]

Thank you both for the lists. I'll check my library for these titles. By the way, Lolita is my daughter's favorite, too.

 

She has good taste!

[danieleWrites]

Hmm.

 

The key seems to be 1) larger vocabulary and 2) develop thinking. For the vocab, read a variety of things. Poetry, drama, essays, whatnot. I recommend Dryden. He's a hoot. If you can, get a major anthology for general literature, like Norton or Oxford. You'll get tons, except for essays. You should be able to pick up readers with a lot of essays in them. Because you're a creative writer, I recommend reading creative writing "theorists". Gag. I call them pontificators because the pontificate. Theory must be testable. Srsly. Rrrg. Don't limit to dramatists. Charles Simic has some great stuff that's difficult to read, which makes the ol' brain work harder. If your problem in writing papers is making connections, then practice making connections.

 

My preferred literary theory book is Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan's Literary Theory: An Anthology. Each theoretical perspective has a discussion explaining what it is, and then it has readings from the major theorists.

 

In addition to reading, you should write, too. Use the theory you're learning to write opinions on whatever literature you're reading. For instance, you can take Death of a Salesman and apply each theory to it as you work your way through whatever literary theory anthology you get. Go out and find lit crit papers on Death of Salesman and compare your application of a theoretical perspective to what someone else has written. I say Death of a Salesman because tons have been written on it. Shakespeare and Ibsen works well, too. Hey, keep a blog. That could be fun.

[Tuck]

Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay is a really enjoyable book with lots of advanced vocab. Great summer reading.