Books

Save These Books From Your College Sell-Back Pile

by Tori Telfer

June 4, 2014

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It's summer, school's out forever, and you never want to touch another college reading list again. I get it. I absolutely get it. There's nothing quite like "assigned reading" to really kill a person's love of literature, and there's nothing quite like being tested on a book to make you forget how to read for pleasure.

Reading is both de-emphasized and wrongly emphasized in college classrooms. It's rare to feel excited about any book when you're slogging through an Intro to English Lit class only because it's a box you have to check off before you graduate. The reading lists in most English classes are simply too long — if you don't fall behind on reading by week three, you're some sort of mutant — and both the relentless pace of assignments and the lukewarm classroom analysis from your peers turn reading into a total chore. It's really hard to love reading in college. There's no point in denying it.

The real tragedy is that people graduate from college and never pick up a classic novel again, because a) they had a terrible time reading it and b) they feel like there's no need. After all, they technically finished Madame Bovary, despite their heavy reliance on SparkNotes and late-night skimming. So what's the point in reading it again?

Before you throw away your battered stacks of used college novels, hang on to a few of the really good ones. After all, they're more than just fodder for cocktail-hour conversations — they're brilliant life textbooks. Who needs What Color Is Your Parachute? when you can learn everything you need to know about how not to be a terrifying sociopath by reading a little Camus, a little O'Connor?

(Please note: This list can't help but be ridiculously incomplete, and should not be used as a substitute for the entire canon of world literature.)