Good Novels to Read for Philosophy Majors
A lot of students wonder if there'due south a specific AP English reading list of books they should be reading to succeed on the AP Literature and Composition exam. While in that location's not an official Higher-Board AP reading listing, in that location are books that will exist more useful for you to read than others as you prepare for the exam. In this article, I'll suspension downwardly why you need to read books to ready, how many yous should plan on reading, and what you should read—including poetry. This might seem similar kind of an obvious question—you lot need to read books considering information technology's a literature examination! But actually, there are three specific reasons why you need to read novels, poems, and plays in grooming for the AP Lit Test. Reading a diverse array of novels, poetry and plays from different eras and genres will assist you exist familiar with the language that appears in the various passages on the AP Lit exam's multiple selection and essay sections. If you read primarily modern works, for example, you may stumble through analyzing a Shakespeare sonnet. So, having a basic familiarity level with the language of a broad variety of literary works will assist keep you lot from floundering in confusion on test twenty-four hour period because yous're seeing a work unlike anything you've always read. Yous'll also want to read to improve your close-reading and rhetorical assay skills. When you do read, really engage with the text: think about what the writer's doing to construct the novel/poem/play/etc., what literary techniques and motifs are being deployed, and what major themes are at play. You don't necessarily need to drill down to the same degree on every text, but you should ever exist thinking, "Why did the writer write this slice this way?" Maybe the most disquisitional piece in reading to prepare for the AP Lit test, however, is for the student choice free-response question. For the third question on the second test section, you lot'll exist asked to examine how a specific theme works in one novel or play that y'all choose. The College Board does provide an example listing of works, but you can choose any piece of work yous like merely and so long as it has adequate "literary merit." Nevertheless, you lot need to be closely familiar with more than one work so that you can be prepared for whatever theme the College Lath throws at yous! Does your school report your GPA as weighted or unweighted? What would your GPA exist, considered on a 4.0, 5.0, or vi.0 scale? Use our tool to summate your unweighted and weighted GPA to figure out how you stack upward confronting other college applicants. You'll also get our proprietary college core GPA calculation and advice on where to improve to be a meliorate college bidder. Note: Non an effective reading method. That depends. In terms of reading to increase your familiarity with literature from different eras and genres and to improve your close-reading skills, the more than books you take time to read, the better. You'll want to read them all with an heart for comprehension and basic assay, but you don't necessarily need to focus as on every book y'all read. For the purposes of the pupil selection question, still, y'all'll want to read books more closely, so that you could write a detailed, convincing analytical essay virtually whatsoever of their themes. And so you should know the plot, characters, themes, and major literary devices or motifs used inside and out. Since you won't know what theme you'll exist asked to write nearly in advance, you lot'll need to be prepared to write a student choice question on more than merely one book. Of the books you read for prep both in and out of class, choose four to five books that are thematically various to learn especially well in grooming for the exam. Yous may want to read these more in one case, and you certainly desire to take detailed notes on everything that's going on in those books to help you recollect key points and themes. Discussing them with a friend or mentor who has too read the book will help you lot generate ideas on what'due south about interesting or intriguing about the work and how its themes operate in the text. Y'all may exist doing some of these activities anyways for books yous are assigned to read for class, and those books might be solid choices if you want to exist equally efficient every bit possible. Books y'all write essays near for schoolhouse are also keen choices to include in your iv to five book stable since you will be condign super-familiar with them for the writing you do in class anyways. In answer to the question, then, of how many books yous need to read for the AP Lit exam: you need to know four to v inside and out, and beyond that, the more the improve! Know the books. Love the books. The most of import thing for the educatee choice free-response question is that the work you select needs to have "literary merit." What does this mean? In the context of the College Board, this ways you should stick with works of literary fiction. So in general, avert mysteries, fantasies, romance novels, and so on. If yous're looking for ideas, authors and works that have won prestigious prizes similar the Pulitzer, Human being Booker, the National Book Award, and and so on are good choices. Annihilation you read specifically for your AP literature class is a good pick, too. If you aren't sure if a particular work has the kind of literary merit the Higher Board is looking for, ask your AP teacher. When creating your own AP Literature reading list for the student choice gratuitous-response, endeavour to pick works that are diverse in writer, setting, genre, and theme. This volition maximize your ability to comprehensively respond a student selection question about pretty much anything with ane of the works you've focused on. So, I might, for example, choose: A Midsummer Nighttime's Dream, Shakespeare, play, 1605 Major themes and devices: magic, dreams, transformation, foolishness, man vs. woman, play-inside-a-play Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte, novel, 1847 Major themes and devices: destructive love, exile, social and economical course, suffering and passion, vengeance and violence, unreliable narrator, frame narrative, family dysfunction, intergenerational narratives. The Age of Innocence, Edith Wharton, novel, 1920 Major themes and devices: Tradition and duty, personal freedom, hypocrisy, irony, social class, family, "maintaining appearances", laurels Broad Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys, novel, 1966 Major themes and devices: slavery, race, magic, madness, wildness, civilization vs. anarchy, imperialism, gender As you tin can see, while there is some thematic overlap in my chosen works, they also cover a broad swathe of themes. They are likewise all very different in style (although you'll just have to take my word on that i unless you go look at all of them yourself), and they span a range of time periods and genres besides. However, while there's non necessarily a specific, mandated AP Literature reading listing, at that place are books that come upwardly again and again on the proffer lists for student choice free-response questions. When a book comes up over and over again on exams, this suggests both that it's thematically rich, so you lot can utilize it to respond lots of different kinds of questions, and that the College Board sees a lot of value in the piece of work. To that finish, I've assembled a list, separated by fourth dimension period, of all the books that have appeared on the suggested works list for student choice complimentary-response questions at to the lowest degree twice since 2003. While you certainly shouldn't exist aiming to read all of these books (there's way besides many for that!), these are all solid choices for the student selection essay. Other books by authors from this listing are also going to be strong choices. It's likely that some of your class reading will overlap with this listing, as well. I've divided up the works into chunks by time period. In addition to title, each entry includes the writer, whether the work is a novel, play, or something else, and when it was beginning published or performed. Works are alphabetical past writer. Alert: Not all works pictured included in AP Literature reading list below. Looking for help studying for your AP exam? Our one-on-1 online AP tutoring services can help you prepare for your AP exams. Become matched with a tiptop tutor who got a high score on the exam yous're studying for! Title Writer Genre Appointment Medea Euripides play 431 BC The Odyssey Homer epic poem (no date) Antigone Sophocles play 441 BC Oedipus Rex Sophocles play 429 BC Title Author Genre Appointment Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes novel 1605 Tom Jones Henry Fielding novel 1749 As You Like It Shakespeare play 1623 Julius Caesar Shakespeare play 1599 King Lear Shakespeare play 1606 A Midsummer Dark's Dream Shakespeare play 1605 The Merchant of Venice Shakespeare play 1605 Othello Shakespeare play 1604 The Tempest Shakespeare play 1611 Candide Voltaire novel 1759 Title Author Genre Date Emma Jane Austen novel 1815 Mansfield Park Jane Austen novel 1814 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen novel 1813 Jane Eyre Charlotte Bronte novel 1847 Wuthering Heights Emily Bronte novel 1847 The Awakening Kate Chopin novel 1899 The Red Bluecoat of Courage Stephen Crane novel 1895 Dour Business firm Charles Dickens novel 1853 David Copperfield Charles Dickens novel 1850 Great Expectations Charles Dickens novel 1861 Oliver Twist Charles Dickens novel 1837 A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens novel 1859 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky novel 1866 Madame Bovary Gustave Flaubert novel 1856 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy novel 1895 The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy novel 1886 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy novel 1891 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne novel 1850 A Doll'south House Henrik Ibsen play 1879 The American Henry James novel 1877 The Portrait of a Lady Henry James novel 1881 Moby-Dick Herman Melville novel 1851 Frankenstein Mary Shelley novel 1818 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy novel 1877 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Marking Twain novel 1885 The Queen of AP Literature surveys her kingdom. Title Author Genre Date My Ántonia Willa Cather novel 1918 The Blood-red Orchard Anton Chekhov play 1904 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad novel 1902 Sister Carrie Theodore Dreiser novel 1900 Murder in the Cathedral T.South. Eliot play 1935 Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner novel 1936 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner novel 1930 Calorie-free in Baronial William Faulkner novel 1932 The Audio and the Fury William Faulkner novel 1929 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald novel 1925 A Passage to Bharat East.M. Forster novel 1924 The Little Foxes Lillian Hellman play 1939 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston novel 1937 Brave New World Aldous Huxley novel 1931 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce novel 1916 Billy Budd Herman Melville novel 1924 Major Barbara George Bernard Shaw play 1905 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck novel 1939 The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton novel 1920 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton novel 1911 The House of Mirth Edith Wharton novel 1905 Mrs. Dalloway Virginia Woolf novel 1925 Title Author Genre Appointment Things Autumn Apart Chinua Achebe novel 1958 Who'south Agape of Virginia Woolf? Edward Albee play 1962 Another Land James Baldwin novel 1962 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett play 1953 The Plague Albert Camus novel 1947 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison novel 1952 Lord of the Flies William Golding novel 1954 A Raisin in the Sunday Lorraine Hansberry play 1959 Catch-22 Joseph Heller novel 1961 One Flew Over the Cuckoo' s Nest Ken Kesey novel 1962 A Dissever Peace John Knowles novel 1959 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee novel 1960 The Crucible Arthur Miller play 1953 Death of a Salesman Arthur Miller play 1949 House Made of Dawn North. Scott Momaday novel 1968 Wise Blood Flannery O'Connor novel 1952 1984 George Orwell novel 1949 Cry, the Dear Country Alan Paton novel 1948 All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren novel 1946 The Chosen Chaim Potok novel 1967 Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys novel 1966 The Catcher in the Rye JD Salinger novel 1951 Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead Tom Stoppard play 1966 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut novel 1963 The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams play 1945 A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams play 1947 Blackness Boy Richard Wright memoir 1945 Native Son Richard Wright novel 1940 Don't go trapped in a literature vortex! Championship Author Genre Date Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya novel 1972 The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros novel 1984 "Master Harold" . . . and the boys Athol Fugard play 1982 Thousand. Butterfly David Henry Hwang play 1988 A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving novel 1989 The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston memoir 1976 Obasan Joy Kogawa novel 1981 Dearest Toni Morrison novel 1987 The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison novel 1970 Vocal of Solomon Toni Morrison novel 1977 Sula Toni Morrison novel 1973 Jasmine Bharati Mukherjee novel 1989 The Women of Brewster Place Gloria Naylor novel 1982 Going Subsequently Cacciato Tim O'Brien novel 1978 Equus Peter Shaffer play 1973 Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko novel 1977 Sophie's Choice William Styron novel 1979 The Color Purple Alice Walker novel 1982 Fences August Wilson play 1983 The Piano Lesson August Wilson play 1987 Title Author Genre Date Reservation Blues Sherman Alexie novel 1995 The Blind Assassinator Margaret Atwood novel 2000 Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood novel 2003 The Retention Keeper's Girl Kim Edwards novel 2005 Cold Mountain Charles Frazier novel 1997 Snowfall Falling on Cedars David Guterson novel 1994 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini novel 2003 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini novel 2007 Never Allow Me Get Kazuo Ishiguro novel 2005 The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver novel 1998 The Namesake Jumpa Lahiri novel 2004 All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy novel 1992 Atonement Ian McEwan novel 2001 Native Speaker Chang Rae-Lee novel 1995 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy novel 1997 A K Acres Jane Smiley novel 1991 The Bonesetter'southward Daughter Amy Tan novel 2001 The Story of Edgar Sawtelle David Wroblewski novel 2008 Don't stay in one reading position for too long, or you'll end upwardly like this guy. Desire to build the best possible college awarding? We can help. PrepScholar Admissions is the world'due south best admissions consulting service. Nosotros combine globe-grade admissions counselors with our data-driven, proprietary admissions strategies. We've overseen thousands of students get into their acme choice schools, from land colleges to the Ivy League. We know what kinds of students colleges want to admit. Nosotros want to get yous admitted to your dream schools. Learn more about PrepScholar Admissions to maximize your gamble of getting in. You probably won't be writing about poesy on your student choice essay—virtually only aren't compact enough in terms of activity and character to merit a full-length essay on the themes when you don't actually accept the poem in front of yous (a major exception being The Odyssey). That doesn't mean that y'all shouldn't exist reading verse, though! You should exist reading a wide variety of poets from different eras to become comfortable with all the varieties of poetic linguistic communication. This volition brand the poetry assay essay and the multiple-choice questions almost verse much easier! See this list of poets compiled from the listing given on folio ten of the AP Course and Examination Description for AP Lit, separated out by time period. For those poets who were working during more than 1 of the fourth dimension periods sketched out below, I tried to place them in the era in which they were more than agile. I've placed an asterisk next to the most notable and important poets in the list; yous should aim to read one or ii poems past each of the starred poets to get familiar with a broad range of poetic styles and eras. You might rather burn books than read them subsequently the examination, but please refrain. Why do you need to read books to prepare for AP Lit? For 3 reasons: #one: To get familiar with a variety of literary eras and genres How many books do yous need to read? Well, you definitely need to go very familiar with four-five for essay-writing purposes, and beyond that, the more the ameliorate! Which books should you read? Check out the AP English language Literature reading list in this article to see works that have appeared on 2 or more "suggested works" lists on free-response prompts since 2003. And don't forget to read some poetry besides! Come across some College Board recommended poets listed in this article. See my expert guide to the AP Literature test for more than exam tips! The multiple-choice section of the AP Literature exam is a key part of your score. Larn everything you need to know virtually information technology in our complete guide to AP Lit multiple-choice questions. Taking other APs? Cheque out our practiced guides to the AP Chemistry exam, AP US History, AP World History, AP Psychology, and AP Biology. Looking for other book recommendation lists from PrepScholar? We've compiled lists of the seven books you lot must read if you're a pre-med and the 31 books to read before graduating high schoolhouse. Ane of the single most important parts of your higher awarding is what classes yous choose to accept in high school (in conjunction with how well you do in those classes). Our team of PrepScholar admissions experts have compiled their cognition into this unmarried guide to planning out your high school course schedule. We'll advise you on how to residue your schedule between regular and honors/AP/IB courses, how to choose your extracurriculars, and what classes you can't afford non to have. 
Why Do Y'all Need to Read Books for the AP Literature Test?
To Increase Your Familiarity With Different Eras and Genres of Literature
To Meliorate Your Close-Reading Skills
For the Student Choice Free-Response Question
How Many Books Practise You Need to Read for the AP Exam?
What Books Do You Need to Read for the AP Examination?
Ancient Works
1500-1799
1800-1899
1900-1939
1940-1969
1970-1989
1990-Nowadays
An Addendum on Poetry
14th-17th Centuries
18th-19th Centuries
Early-Mid 20th Century
Tardily 20th Century-Nowadays
Key Takeaways
#2: To work on your close-reading skills
#3: To become closely familiar with 4-five works for the purposes of the educatee choice free-response essay analyzing a theme in a work of your choice.What's Adjacent?
Ellen has extensive instruction mentorship experience and is securely committed to helping students succeed in all areas of life. She received a BA from Harvard in Folklore and Mythology and is currently pursuing graduate studies at Columbia University.
Source: https://blog.prepscholar.com/ap-literature-reading-list
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