Reading List Concerns - English

Not an English subject but for History I think I read two books off the reading list but only once I had been sent it by college. I would say that if you want to read some of the texts because you are bored/interested in the book right now then go for it but it you haven't been sent the reading list yet then your college probably aren't expecting you to be reading from it yet! Once you have results, you should be contacted by a college parent (2nd year student) and you can ask them how much reading you should be doing really (for example in history I rarely read the whole list each week but some texts would be marked as essential).

Would be very interested to know how much reading and what type you do for history specifically each week. Are you reading books cover to cover or just designated chapters- how many of those in a week? Are you reading academic articles in periodicals more or just books - how many? What might an average number of essential books be per week - asking for someone who might be applying but is a bit concerned about the volume of reading due to particular circumstances. Thank-you!

I did English at Cambridge - as you've identified, it's generally impossible to complete the reading list. This is something you'll have to get used to, I'm afraid! It's probably a good idea to read some of the harder/longer texts now; before I started I read 4 or 5 primary texts from the reading list I was sent. However, I'd recommend first waiting until you know you've got in (though I'm sure you will). Secondly, when they email you the reading list they'll almost certainly guide you as to what's best to read, and allay your fears about not being able to read everything. Thirdly, my generic piece of advice would be to bear in mind that you'll probably have to re-read anything you do read now anyway. When you get set your essays, you'll realise that the notes you took over the summer (if you took any at all) are largely useless because they weren't made with your essay question in mind, and they weren't backed up by the content you're covering in lectures/classes/tutorials. Thus, in this way summer reading is only useful for getting a sense of a work and finding bits which seem significant, so that you can navigate around the text more easily later, and find quotes a bit more quickly. Overall, as my 3 years wore on I did less and less vacation reading because I decided it wasn't very helpful since I'd just re-read everything during term anyway.