Wider reading for sociology?

Hi,
I'm hoping to study sociology at university starting in 2017. I haven't done a level sociology because my school doesn't offer it so I was wondering if anyone could recommend some good books to help me gain a better understanding of the subject before I start?
Thanks
Saskia

Sorry to jump in but I'm in the same boat as you! At the moment I do Double Health and Social Care, Performing Arts and English Literature which means I will hopefully finish with the equivalent to three D*s and... Whatever I get in Literature... So no Sociology! I'm considering doing an EPQ for it next year though? Have you been looking at universities yet?

I'm studying biology, psychology, maths and spanish so they aren't really related apart from maybe psychology. I've been to see Cardiff which I fell in love with and they have a really good social science department! I'm going to visit loads over the next few months as well like Sheffield, Liverpool and Warwick ect. I highly recommend the complete university guide website, you can look at the league tables on there in which you can select sociology and look at the best unis for the course! What about you?

Good idea! I have my heart set on Lancaster... Plus it's 14th in the league table for Sociology apparently! It's the only open day I've booked so far.

Hi All,I wouldn't worry too much about not doing A levels in a specific subject. This may become an interview question you will need to be prepared for. I wouldn't want to bog you down too much but I would suggest Anthony Giddens and Haralambos & Holborn for uni level. They are quite thorough and most students I work with use them for Sociology. It can be challenging studying a subject when you didn't do the previous level. I did it at post graduate level and have met many others who have done it. Many students get stuck on the theory side at first but soon get to grips with it. The other thing to consider is Social Science essays can be structured differently to other disciplines, mainly because there are no definitive right and wrongs. As a sweeping statement, you are expected to consider many points. If you need any help contact me via my website, consensus tutor.

Don't worry too much about wider reading, most uni's will cover the basics with you but if you want to go ahead with the wider reading look below.

As someone who's just finished studying sociology at A-level and came out with an A*, I would mainly recommend that you stick to looking into various sociological perspectives.
Aka functionalism, Marxism, Feminism (and its various branches: liberal, Marxist and radical to begin with), postmodernism, action theorists, the New Right and the New Left.
Just read up on them, get a feel about how they interpret society.

Sociology can be quite vast for the subject matter but the topics I covered were: the family, education, religion, research methods, sociological theory(as mentioned in the previous paragraph) and finally crime and deviance. Other schools did topics such as sex and gender, class, poverty and social exclusion, culture and identity, mass media, power(politics and the state), plus health.

Wider reading for A-level is quite awkward because we'd literally use small snippets of theories to back up our essays, for example 'the functionalist Durkheim believed that people used religion as a way of worshipping society as religion reflect the norms and values of the society facilitating it, for example, Bellah supports this with civil religion in the US where religion is used to affirm and worship American society through affirmations like 'God bless America'.

If you're willing to read through the works of sociologists in preparation for university then make sure you cover a range of perspectives, although the core original theorists are quite difficult to read Comte, Durkheim, Marx and Engels are pretty old so it's hard to read some of their stuff.
Notable theorists include: Durkheim, Marx, Engels, Foucault, Simone De Beauvoir, Goffman (the dramaturgical model!), Weber, Oakley, Ansley, Nanda (the God market, covers the effect of globalisation upon religion and the economy of LEDC's), Glenny (McMafia), Sudhir Vankatesh (Gangleader for a day, it's an entertaining read). If you can afford it or find one in your library, try the Haralambos & Holborn: Sociology themes and perspectives book. It's what most teachers use to write course materials and such (mine certainly did) as it includes contemporary theorists and modern research into older topics like Durkheim's suicide study in London has a revamped example.
I think you can download most of the older sociologists work quite cheaply if you have a Kindle (I managed to find Das Kapital by Karl Marx for free, way cheaper than a physical copy).

Look online for powerpoints and resources that teachers may have uploaded, that may make things more concise instead of pouring through a 300 page book looking for one chapter.