WHAT SHOULD FRESHMEN READ?: In the latest issue of The Village Voice, Theo Schell-Lambert explores the trend among universities (mainly the Ivy League variety) to assign summer reading to incoming students. The most common trend, he writes, is to assign the same book to all freshmen, who discuss it in small groups when they get to campus. He continues: “The college summer read tends to be challenging but not overtly controversial, smart but not wonkishly academic. Several categories have emerged to satisfy those criteria: There's the Still Relevant Classic ( Antigone), Cool Classic (Frankenstein, anything by Kafka), Identity Political (Life on the Color Line, Things Fall Apart), and the Actually Worthwhile Bestseller (The Tipping Point).” This got me thinking about what book would I assign to incoming freshmen at Your Typical Western State University (YTWSU). It could represent the contemporary West (Mark Spragg, Annie Proulx, Sherman Alexie), but there are great books about bygone times (think of books by A.B. Guthrie or Willa Cather). Maybe it should approach The West as in “western civilization.” In that case, something like Antigone or The Iliad would be appropriate. Some of my favorite novels have universal themes. I think of One Hundred Years of Solitude and Song of Solomon. If you were making the decision, what book would you assign to incoming freshmen at YTWSU? Click on "comments" below.

- posted by Michael Shay @ 9:25 AM