A Reading List for English Applicants

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I am waiting for the official uni reading list, some of the stuff on your list looks horrible!
Really do not know if I should be studying English next year :confused:

HHi carnt believe that units leave it till August to publish reading lists officially :-/ what uni are you hoping to go to?
What I did which helped me decide what to read is to go on to what modules they covered on the course last year and pick books from them reading lists cus they won't change too much I don't think...hope this helps
xo

Reply 301

XxMagicMezziexX

Original post by sophieeox4

I know D: My firm is Reading so with a lot of luck I will get the results! Thank you I will definitely have a look into that! :biggrin:

Reply 302

dorababy1995

What a great thread! Just what I've been looking for! I've only just applied for A-levels, but I'm aiming for Oxbridge, so this list will come in really handy!

Reply 303

PumpkinNox13009

BTW, is it possible for someone to point out a few books/authors for me if I give you a list of my favorite modern books (like harry potter)? I know that there's a lot of recommendations here already but I'm not sure where to start.
Could/Should I mention children's literature (which I enjoy)? Lord of the Rings?

p.s. i'm currently reading sense and sensibility and enjoying it.

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Original post by PatrickB

This is how I did mine...

Thanks for that!! It's really insightful and I finally understand how+why I need to talk about books rather than EC stuff.

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 304

PatrickB

Original post by PumpkinNox13009

http://www.luminarium.org/ Lock yourself in your bedroom with this website and don't come out until you have a list of books you need to haul home from your local (major) library to read!

Reply 305

elliemorley

Is there an updated version of this for this year's course? :smile:

Reply 306

LannaBanana

This list annoyed me when I first read it 3 years ago, and it annoys me even more now. So many of these texts need the study that you can only give them while in University. It's such a random list as well... The books you've read before you go to Uni don't matter - it's HOW you read them. What's the point in reading To the Lighthouse and not understanding a word of it? Unless you have some kind of photographic memory and you can remember everything you read, I don't understand reading the bible before you start your degree either - you're not going to glean anything worthwhile from it that most people don't already know. (You should have a basic knowledge of the stories within the bible that most people already have a basic knowledge of anyway). If you've never studied Modernism before, you probably will not have a clue what's going on in Woolf, Eliot and Joyce. They are difficult writers. Unless you're seriously interested in texts pre-Shakespeare, you're probably not going to need to read those beforehand either.

Critical thinking and literary analysis is more important than the sheer number of books you've read. The historical context in which something was written matters - Jekyll and Hyde is an interesting read that becomes even more interesting when you realise that he wrote it at the end of 19th Century. When you start to associate the text with decadence and the middle-class fears surrounding the degradation of society because of ideas like evolution, degeneration, the fear of the city boosted by things like the Ripper murders etc, you see how important a text it is as an example of fin-de-siecle fiction. When you are constantly aware of the feminist issue when you're reading To the Lighthouse (it was written a year before women aged 21 were finally granted the vote), then you can appreciate the book more than if you just read it thinking you were going to get a story. There is no story. The narrative style is what you need to pay attention to.

Universities offer vastly different texts... I suggest reading as much as possible, as widely as possible, to see where your interests lie. The list at the beginning of this thread jokes about missing out the latter half of the 20th Century - this is a serious oversight imo. There are also only English writers...? I guess that's since it's for English Literature, but if your course only teachers English writers I find that weird. American writers and postcolonial writers seem like a HUGE blank from this list.

Sorry for the rant, I just remember reading that list and thinking "Holy shhh... I have to read all of these texts before I even start? Will everyone have read them but me?"

No. The answer is no.

Reply 307

Excuse Me!

I enjoy reading modern stuff but am less keen with the 'classics' so to speak. The only two i've enjoyed are 'Dr Jekyll / Mr Hyde' and 'Of Mice And Men' but even then i'd rather read a modern piece.

So my question is, do I have to have read old books to put on my personal statement?

Reply 308

LannaBanana

Original post by Excuse Me!

No you don't. I wrote about magical realism for my personal statement. As long as you have something interesting to say about the literature you read, it should be fine.

Reply 309

username2177627

I posted the reading list Brasenose sent me on my blog, which you can see here:
https://litcritandwit.wordpress.com/2016/06/10/oxford-reading-list/

Reply 310

eellieodo

This is exactly what I needed, thank you so much

Reply 311

MissScarlet24

Original post by Excuse Me!

Probably a bit late to mention it now but if you don’t like the classics, there’s not much point in doing an English degree. It’s like saying you want to be a food critic but you only like McDonalds.