What books ARE ESSENTIAL TO BECOMING A "LEARNED" college STUDENT?

Question

I'm a Stanford psychology student. I somewhat dismayed that I haven't read as many good books as I would have liked. I certainly do not want to become a philistine. I'm not asking to become the next Frasier Crane, but I would like to be more culturally literate.

I have on my reading list books by - Nietzsche (obviously), Marx, Bertarnd Russell, Richard Dawkins, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, J.D. Salinger, Don DiLillo, George Orwell, Rosseau, Ayn Rand, Schopenhauer, Sam Harris, Conrad, Vonnegut,

Which works from that list of authors would you recommend that I read?

What books are indispensible to a college student?

This may be a silly question, but to those erudite readers - how do you read a book? - Straight through? An hour a day? Laying in bed? Sitting on a couch? Many people do not know the best way to go about reading a book.

If you don't know a word, do you look it up in the dictionary, or do you just make it out and/or skip it? Thanks!!

Answer 1

The best way is to forget everything you learned in college when you graduate. Then concentrate on wisdom instead of accumulating facts and figures. Wisdom is the ability to used your knowledge and it is not taught in schools. You are not truly educated until you travel extensively and experience other peoples, cultures, and customs.
We live in a global community.

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Answer 2

I recommend Robert Heinlein's juveniles in particular Rolling Stones and Have Spacesuit-Will Travel. Both discuss how an individual should handle self-education. I also recommend Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Makes you rethink the American Revolution.

I haven't read Dawkins but I saw him on Stephen Colbert's show. He has a new one out. I read Nietzsche, Marx, Russell, Salinger, Rosseau, and Rand in college classes but I can't say they really stuck with me now that I am 54.

Other books I highly recommend are Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, Tale of Two Cities by Dickens, Three Musketeers by Alexander Dumas. Dune by Frank Herbert. Definitely read books by Vonnegut. I loved Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five. Definitely read 1984 by Orwell. I read both War and Peace & Anna Karenina.

Indespensible books: LOL Chicago Manual of Style but APA is the manual most use now. Get a good dictionary and thesaurus.

I prefer to read a book in a bathtub when I can or in bed. I generally finish them because I read very fast. It works for me. However that is reading for pleasure. When I read for informtion, I read sitting at a chair with a writing surface for me to take notes.

When I don't know a word, sometimes I get it in context and sometimes I look it up. Again it depends on if it is for pleasure or for something I might be tested on.

I graduated with three majors: Library science, social science, and history with a secondary education minor. Science Fiction is my prefered reading but I read romance, fantasy, and historical fiction as well as educational theory books. I attend science fiction conventions, own 5000 books and 40% are autographed by the author.

Answer 3

The seems The glitch in Sleep The Pendragon sequence 10 or so books there The Graveyard tale Artemis fowl sequence 5 Or o books a chain of unlucky activities with the help of Lemony Snicket 12 books

Answer 4

First go buy a dictionary and "Basics: A Rhetoric and Handbook." "LEARNED" college student??? Maybe you meant, EDUCATED college student!!! If you're reading something and don't understand the word(s), pause, and look it up in the dictionary. And get back to reading. The best way to fit reading into your schedule is to set aside a hour or two to read your text. Not two straight hours, take a break, and finish the second hour later. And you should read "The User's Guide to College Writing." And check with your professors or your school's website, to find out what books you should be reading.

Answer 5

All right, I'm still a high school student, but have you thought of some of the older British stuff? Chaucer, for one?