School is out for summer, and you’re prepping for your senior year of high school or perhaps your first year of college. While much of your preparations might include planning your classes or shopping for a new wardrobe, make sure to set aside some time for reading.
Yes, reading. But don’t worry; there are no term papers due at the end of August. There are plenty of reasons to read outside of school assignments, such as:
- Develop a wider vocabulary
- Expand your worldview by exploring different times, places, and cultures
- Learn grammar and punctuation rules automatically, through exposure
- Develop your own writing style by exposing yourself to others
- Put a more personal spin on history, geography, political science, and psychology lessons
- Enjoyment; you might surprise yourself!
And, of course, there’s always peer pressure and the fear of missing out: When you get to college, you don’t want to find that many other students have read books that you haven’t. No one can read every book on the planet, but some are definite favorites of college professors and students. Consider these classic titles for your summer reading list…
- Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
- 1984, by George Orwell
- Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
- The Art of Happiness, by the Dalai Lama and Howard C Cutler
- Paradise Lost, by John Milton
- Animal Farm, by George Orwell
- The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
- The Stranger, by Albert Camus
- To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
- Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut
- One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
- Hamlet, by William Shakespeare
- The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck
- This Side of Paradise, by F Scott Fitzgerald
- Civilization and Its Discontents, by Sigmund Freud
The above are just a sampling of suggestions, of course, and there are many other books that are just as valuable. The important thing is to choose books you enjoy, but that also challenge you. If it feels too easy and too relatable, you’re probably not challenging yourself enough. Once you find yourself thinking, “Wow, I never considered that before”, you’re on the right track. Have fun, and who knows; you might even spark a new interest that you wouldn’t have otherwise discovered.