Summer Reading List!

[bor0000]

---

Members don't see this ad.

Well i must admit i am not a well read person, and it has affected negatively in life. One of the reasons(though there are obviously others) to read, is so i could possibly do well on the Dat verbal, and of course to do better on the essays and interviews.
So i'm interested in what books to read over the summer(i take dat in the spring). I would like to read some classic literature, i.e. 19th century or even below. But also some books from even the 2nd half of the 20th century, because such things really interest me.
I like it when the books describe a lot of action(adventures), describe the characters that i could relate to, i.e. doctors,policemen, laywers,etc. I really like agatha christie and conandoyle from the few books that ive read. but i dont mind reading some more serious literature, like Dumas-3 musketeers or monte christo. Right now i just started reading Maugham's- razor's edge, and so far i cant tell what the book is about, except that it's really different from agatha christie, but what they share is that the authors try to be realistic and try to depict their time.... i tried reading Sheldon and i absolutely hated it not only because of the poor writing, but because his books are completely unrealistic.

So i'd like you to tell me about the following authors and add any others to the least:
Agatha Christie-early 20th century; police detectives; well written
Konan Doyle-same. his novels may be a bit shorter and less descriptive but have more action.
Dumas-17th,18th century. how is it?
Dickens-19th century-oliver twist- how is it?
Fitzegerald-early 20th- ?
Hemingway- early 20th-?
Evelyn Waugh- early 20th-?
Somerset Maugham-early 20th-??
Jack London-early 20th-cant really related to everyday life because it's about alaska! but if i do read about alaska, then only him.

please tell me which of those that i listed i should cross out, because i obviously cant read all of them? And please add 1 or 2 from the 2nd part of the 20th century?

thanks

 

[angeeeeee]

I really like john grisham (most of them are about lawyers and are pretty action packed)
Split Second by David Baldacci (very twisted/interwoven plot)
If you are a girl (probably guys won't like it), you might like Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir...it's not cheesy or about love at all. True story/autobiography about a girl who was the daughter of the right hand man to the king of Morocco, her father was executed for trying to assassinate the King and her family was imprisoned for 20+ years....great book!
Umm...that's all i can think of for now🙂

 

[ISU_Steve]

Dracula (rereading)
The Phantom of the Opera (a gift from my fiancee- we saw the movie together so she bought me the book)
Catch-22 (rereading for the 6th or 7th time)
Ellenhorn's Medical Toxicology (aka "The Toxicology Dork's Bathroom Reader") 😉

 

[airvent]

Lonely Planet Costa Rica

 

[Pikeyman]

I wouldn't call them "classics" but they are entertaining.

"The Emigrants" series by Vilhelm Moberg.

Or

"The Origin of Species" by Darwin (Charles is not a writer.)

I'm sure you've already read it but what the heck. ("And there were none.")

 

[Rezdawg]

Kite Runner

 

[Jess_SB]

Kite Runner

awesome book, definitely one of my favorites!

Unfortunetly I just packed all of my books up for my move to dental school, but I'm currently enjoying Anna Karenin by Tolstoy (kind of a girl book)
I'll try to think of some good ones.... I just had to second The Kite Runner

 

[msf41]

Everyone who wants to be successful should read:

"Man's search for Meaning"--Victor Frankel

"7 Habits of Highly Effective People"--Stephen Covey

"How to Win Friends and Influence People"--Dale Carnege

"Rich Dad, Poor Dad"--???

Any of the above would be more valuable reads than any of those so-called classical litterature selections you were talking about in my opinion.

 

[Dentist 2 be]

i didnt like rich dad poor dad.

 

[rpkall]

Where are all the REAL classics on these lists?

Like,

Matilda
Harry Potter
Dianetics

?



😉

 

[ISU_Steve]

i didnt like rich dad poor dad.

I agree Dentist 2 Be...I was not impressed.

 

[onetoothleft]

The House of God by Samuel Shem

it applies more to med students than us, but still very good.

 

[Zurik5]

Pretty good list here. I'd like to throw in a few books. How is dracula, ISU_Steve?

The Fortress of Solitude - Jonathan Lethem
Tiger in a Trance - Max Ludington (Read if you like drugs/music)
Gould's Book of Fish - Richard Flanagan

Get these albums, too. Otherwise everyone will think you're a tool in dental school and no one will talk to you 😉

Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
Face the Truth - Stephen Malkmus
The Decemberists - Picaresque

Have a great summer.

 

[psiyung]

If you want to improve your reading comprehension I recommend reading scientific and social articles. Magazines like Nature and Scientific America come to mind. Reading comprehension (i.e. reading fiction) is something that is developed over many years, not a few months.

 

[ISU_Steve]

Pretty good list here. I'd like to throw in a few books. How is dracula, ISU_Steve?

It's very good book....one of the best I've ever read. Bram Stoker certainly knew his way around the English language. 🙂 👍

 

[ToothMonkey]

I really like agatha christie and conandoyle from the few books that ive read.

If you like them you should try G.K. Chesterton. Start with "The Man Who Was Thursday."

 

[bigbevo34]

Ender's Game by orson scott card


It probably won't help your RC too much as it is very straightforward, but trust me, you will be hooked. Great book!

 

[JakeMUSC]

Ender's Game by orson scott card


It probably won't help your RC too much as it is very straightforward, but trust me, you will be hooked. Great book!

Netter's Human Atlas

 

[bor0000]

Thanks for the replies! I think Maugham is great! What are some other writes that have the same interesting style as him and actually teach you about life? Here are some pearls from his book, there are many more that i was too tired to copy:

"Mrs Bradley was a little thinner than before adn more pasty-faced; she looked tired and none too well. But Isabel was blooming. With her high colour, the rich brown of her hair, her shining hazel eyes, her clear skin, she gave an impression of such youth, of so much enjoyment of the mere fact of being alive, that you felt half inclined to laugh with delight. She gave me the rather absurd notion of a pear, golden and luscious, perfectly ripe and simply asking to be eaten.

"I dont forget that at all. Years ago, when I was young, I knew a man who was a doctor, and not a bad one either, but he didnt practise. He spent years burrowing away in the library of the British Museum and at long intervals produced a huge pseudo-scientific, pseudo-philosophical book that nobody read and that he had to publish at his own expense. He wrote four or ofive of them before he died and they were absolutely worthless. He had a son who wanted to go into the army, but there was no money to send him to Sadnhurst, so he had to enlist. He was killed in the war. He had a daughter too. She was very pretty and I was rather taken with her. She went on to the stage, but she had no talent and she traipsed around the provinces playing small parts in second-rate companies at a miserable salary. His wife, after years of dreary, sordid drudgery, broke down in health and the girl had to come home and nurse her and take on the drudgery her mother no longer had the strength for. Wasted, thwarted lives and all to no purpose. It's a toss-up when you decide to leave the beaten track. Many are called but few are chosen."

Feeling that I had been inadequate, I tried to say at least some small thing that would give her comfrot.
"You know, when one's in love," I said, "and things go all wrong, one's terribly unhappy and one thinks one won't ever get over it. But you'll be astounded to learn what the sea will do."
"What do you mean?" she smiled.
"Well, love isnt a good sailor and it languishes on a sea voyage."
"Do you speak from experience?"
"From the experience of a stormy past. When I suffered from the pangs of unrequitted love I immdediately got on an ocean liner."



"Moralists try to persuade us that the sexual instinct hasnt got so very much to do with love. They're apt to speak of it as if it were an epiphenomenon."
"WHat in God's name is that?"
"Well, there are psychologists who think that consiousness accompanies brain processes and is determined by them, but doesnt itself exert any influence on them. Something like the reflection of a tree in water; it couldnt exist without the tree, but it doesnt in any way affect the tree. I think it's all stuff and nonsense to say that there can be love without passion; when people say love can endure after passion is dead they're talking of something else, affection, kindliness, community of taste and interest, and habit. Especially habit. Two people can go on having sexual intercourse from habit in just the same way as they grow hungry at the hour they're accustomed to have their meals. Of course there can be desire without love. Desire isnt passion. Desire is the natural consequence of the sexual instnct and it isnt of any more importance than any other function of the human animal. Thats why women are foolish to make a song and dance if their husbands have an occasional flutter if the time and the place are propitious"
"Does that apply only to men?"
"If you insist I'll admit that what is sauce for the gander is sauce for the goose. The only thing to be said against it is that with a man a passing connexion of that sort has no emotional significance, while with a woman it has."
"It depends on the woman"
"Unless love is passion, it's not love, but something else; and passion thrives not on satisfaction, but on impediment. What d'you suppose Keats meant when he told the lover on his Grecian urn not to grieve? 'Forever wilt thou love, and she be fair!' WHy? Because she was unattainable, and however madly the lover pursued she still elluded him. For they were both imprisoned in the marble of what I suspect was an indifferent work of art. "
"Passion doesnt count the cost. Pascal said that the heart has its reasons that reason takes no account of. If he meant what I think, he meant that when passion seizes the heart it invents reasons that seem not only plausible but conclusive to prove that the world is well lost for love. It convinces you that honour is well sacrificed and that shame is a cheap price to pay"
"It may be then that one is faced with the desolation of knowing that one has wasted the years of one's life, that one's brought disgrace upon oneself, endured the frightful pang of jealousy, swallowed every bitter mortification, that one's expended all one's tenderness, poured out all the riches of one's soul on a poor drab, a fool, a peg on which one hung one's dreams, who wasnt worth a stick of chewing gum."
"Do you think Larry is a virgin?"
"My dear, he's 32."
"I'm certain he is."
"How can you be?"
"That's the kind of thing a woman knows instinctively."
"I knew a young man who had a very prosperous career for some years by convincing one beautiful creature after another that he'd never had a woman. He said it worked like a charm"
"I don't care what you say. I believe in my intuition."
I have never believed very much in women's intuition; it fits in too neatly with what htey want to believe to persuade me that it is trustworthy; and as i thought of the end of my long talk with Isabel I couldnt help but laugh.

 

[DICK]

The number one book I recommend is the Bible. The rest is up to you. The Koran is a fairly good read too. The Torah is not that bad either. But if you want some contoversy in your readings, you may have to search somewhere else 🙁 . (I don't think that makes sense).

 

[drkt]

i don't know how heavy of reading you are looking for, but faulkner is pretty good (but it will take a while). hemingway- the old man and the sea is a must and very easy and short. i would stay away from dickens if you like action. some of stephen king is actually very intellectualy stimulating. his collection of short stories (i can't remember the name of the book but it includes the short that the shawshank redemption was adapted from) toni morrison is also a very good auther (i'd recommend beloved). stay away from british romantics (not very much action, but the underlying issues are always interesting.)

if there was one book i would totally recommend as good summer reading it would be haroun and the sea of stories by rushdie. good story and it really makes you think. hope that helps....

 

[v&andy_yankee]

some books that are FUN and EDUCATIONAL:

memoirs of a geisha
the godfather (marioz puzo; an american classic, oh it made me want to be a kickass mafia man)
grapes of wrath (steinbeck; a classic)
garden of eden (steinbeck)
one flew over the ****oo's nest (kesey)
middlesex (eugenides; won the pulitzer a few years back)
cider house rules (irving)
slaughterhouse five (vonneget)
fahrenheit 451 (classic about book burning)
brave new world (huxley; scifi classic)
i know why the caged brid sings (angelou; an easy read but a staple of african-american lit)
beloved (morrison, another AA staple. don't be fooled by how short it is, it is a very deep novel)
jurassic park (crichton; much better than the movie)
me talk pretty one day (sedaris; comedy on every page)
fountainhead (rice; it's pretty lengthy though)
house of sand and fog (just like the movie; it really makes you even more conscious of the dynamics of american society today (white vs. "other"). i still am amazed by how thoroughly the author has thought out the issue, especially b/c the novel was written before 9-11)

kid's books that are heart tuggers:
walk two moons (creech)
tuck everlasting
harry potter series

and lastly, comics: calvin and hobbes


i would say don't read for the sake of being educated: some of the authors previously mentioned will make you want to take a screwdriver to your head (ie, faulkner and his $@#@ sound and the fury). you want to read for pleasure, not the sake of learning (if you do that, you will probably never get past pg.2). by pg2 of joyce or faulkner, i am usually asleep.

 

[bor0000]

Thank you all! I will now go visit my barnes&noble and try to take a look at all the authors that youve mentioned. I am so far finding maugham to be a pleasure to read! Someone mentioned "stay away from british romantics, because there is not much action"-of course in his book there are no murders, but there is a different kind of action. I just hate it if they take a page to describe somebody's dinner table, thats too heavy for me. I was also reading reviews online, and it mentioned that Graham Greene is of the same stock as Maugham, that is a writer and an agent of mi6🙂 And he wrote after ww2 too, so more modern, i'll see if i like him too.

 

[jk5177]

Everyone who wants to be successful should read:

"Man's search for Meaning"--Victor Frankel

"7 Habits of Highly Effective People"--Stephen Covey

"How to Win Friends and Influence People"--Dale Carnege

"Rich Dad, Poor Dad"--???

Any of the above would be more valuable reads than any of those so-called classical litterature selections you were talking about in my opinion.

I've read two of those books.

"Man's search for Meaning" - Excellent book. Great book. I love it.
"How to Win Friends and Influence People." - Oh yeah, Carneige is good.
"7 Habits...." I have the book, but haven't got to it yet.

I also recommend:

"How to Stop Worrying and Start Living." This is one of my all time most favorite books. It beats the other book by Carneige.
"There Is Nothing Wrong with You : Going Beyond Self-Hate." The most easy pop-psychology/New-Age/Buddhism book there is. If you are into zen Buddhism, and want an easy comical book, this is it. In fact, it taught me how to love myself.

 

[jk5177]

If you want to improve your reading comprehension I recommend reading scientific and social articles. Magazines like Nature and Scientific America come to mind. Reading comprehension (i.e. reading fiction) is something that is developed over many years, not a few months.

I like to add that one can also read those MCAT Verbal passages to increase reading comprehension.

 

[jk5177]

The number one book I recommend is the Bible. The rest is up to you. The Koran is a fairly good read too. The Torah is not that bad either. But if you want some contoversy in your readings, you may have to search somewhere else 🙁 . (I don't think that makes sense).

I disagree. However, I do think the Bible is the number one reading for insomniacs.

 

[jk5177]

Sometimes we read a book because we feel like we should read it just so that we can say "Oh Yeah. I read Faulkner" and thus appear we are extra educated. But I think some of the favorite books I've read were books that I can actually understand. I loved the movie Silence of the Lamb, and the book is awesome. That was probably the first book that I actually loved to read and carried it with me wherever I go just so I can turn the page and find out what's next.

For someone like me who reads textbooks and love to read the title, and then just skip all the unnecessay details, that book Silence of the Lamb was the few books that I actually read the details and the descriptions.

In short, read whatever you like to read.

 

[UW09]

To kill a Mockingbird
Catcher in the Rye
The Chosen
The Great Gatsby
The Grapes of Wrath
A Seperate Piece
1984
Angels and Demons
Da Vinci Code
Anthem
The bark of the dogwood
Digital Fortress
Deception Point
The five people you meet in heaven
Little Children
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
Life of Pi
Cry, The Beloved Country
The Plot against America
My name is Charlotte Simmons
Confessions of an EHM
East of Eden
Blink