5 books a prospective English lit degree student should read and have an opinion on...

[shoppingbagsundereyes]

My niece is choosing her a level options. She loves English and says she wants to do an English degree. Other than her set texts she doesn't read though. I have an English degree and at her age read obsessively, working my way through Hardy, Lawrenc, Austen etc. every book I offer dn she says is boring.
So some suggestions please so that I can make her a book list.

In order to go to Uni to study English, you have to get a good A'Level, and the A'Level English Literature (rather than the combined award) does offer candidates the chance to read around the syllabus more than it used to. So if the class is studying something on American literature, you can look at The Great Gatsby but also Tender is the Night (Fitzgerald) or Maya Angelou AND Alice Walker as well as The Invisible Man. Increasingly candidates find Victorian classics long and difficult, but some shorter, appealing Hardy (Tess of the D'Urbervilles) or Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights (bonkers but gothic and popular with teenage girls) would work. And some contemporary historical fiction (Sarah Waters, Affinity or Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace) would also help prepare the ground. And don't forget the poetry! The anthologies used for the exam syllabi can be restrictive, so get a few anthologies from the local library. I would recommend Hughes and Heaney, The Rattle Bag, as a great text just to pick and choose from, to get an idea of what kind of poetry appeals. Regardless of whether she goes to Uni or not, she will be better at ALL her subjects if she reads more than just Stephanie Meyer!

My sister did A level English literature, and the number of books she read during those years seemed to put her off reading.

I, on the other hand, studied science, but read most of her reading list, as well as a huge number of other books (helped by the fact I had a Saturday job at the library, and lots of recommendations from the staff there).

What about some different approaches too - like reading the books of TV adaptions she might have seen (both the classic adaptations, and perhaps more modern things like "call the midwife"? ).

Another idea - how about a "reading retreat" - lots of them are aimed for older readers, but one I would recommend for younger people is based in an old castle in Northern Italy, run by an American friend of mine: www.galeazza.com

If she isn't a reader, she may find an English Lit degree hard going. However, English Lit A level is a great all-rounder A level even if she isn't massvely into Lit - it will benefit her in all sorts of other ways. She will need to start reading, though.

At her age, I loved all the classics, read Shakespeare for fun (geek) and had my own literary interests (American Gothic, the so-called 'Magic realists' - Morrison, Garci-Marquez etc).

She could look at Toni Morrison, actually. You'd be hard pushed not to be moved by some of her earlier, more simplistic stuff - The Bluest Eye, for example?

I think it depends on what she wants to do. University should be fun as well and if she isn't a reader, then an Eng Lit degree seems a strange choice.

She said 'English' and not English Lit so she may be interested in a more theoretical, technical focussed degree. Even with this though, there'd still be lots of reading and analysing of text, both classic and contemporary.

Maybe this VERY SHORT article - even she can read this :) - may be a good starting point. www.independent.co.uk/student/into-university/az-degrees/english-756186.html

For any degree course, she should definitley do some research as to what they entail. The 'same' course can vary enormously depending on where you study...

Hope this helps

Sorry, I have to agree that a good reading habit is a must for an Eng Lit degree course (sadly it is still possible although not desirable to get decent GCSE and A2 grades on reading a handful of books, current courses seem to favour depth rather than breadth. two novels, a Shakespeare, a modern play plus a selection of poetry gets you through a GCSE). If she really doesn't read then don't suggest the heavies/classics as starters let her find her feet and develop a habit of reading for pleasure rather than duty. Teen fiction is a growing market: got to any branch of Waterstones & they should be able to recommend a handful for starters. At this stage, I would almost suggest quality isn't too important: just get her reading. She can then work her way up.

I agree with all the other posters who are saying an Eng Lit degree may not be the right choice if your niece doesn't read for pleasure. Saying that, has she tried these?

Jane Eyre
Middlemarch
The Handmaid's Tale
Pride and Prejudice
The Bloody Chamber

When I did my degree, some time back in the Dark Ages, we were expected to have read The Iliad and the Odyssey (in translation, fortunately), a selection from The Canterbury Tales, a decent selection of Shakespeare, some Spenser, some of the more heavyweight Victorian authors, Eliot's "The Wasteland" and quite a bit more. So those are some of the things she might want to think about moving on to later.

Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake?

Are you SURE she doesn't like reading? I can't imagine that she's dim enough to let it escape her that reading is a massive part of an English degree. I think sometimes people tend to have a rather rosy view of a) exactly how much reading they did as a child/teenager, as a proportion of their time and b) how much they're likely to know about the activities of teenagers. Maybe she likes to keep her reading to herself?

My mum used to despair over how, having apparently read a lot as a child, I "stopped reading" as a teenager. This was bollocks, of course, but I had a lot of other interests as well, and more agency over how I spent my time. If your niece has books in her room, or spends time in the school or town library, or reads stuff online (or maybe has a kindle) then she might just be being a typical teenager and keeping her real enthusiasms to herself.

Best thing to do, if you have the money for it, might be to give her some book vouchers. Let her run riot in a big bookshop (not amazon as could go on DVDs etc) and see what she comes up with for herself?

The gothic horror of the Fin-de-siècle period would be popular with a teenager I would imagine: anything by Oscar Wilde (Dorian Gray in particular) or Arthur Conan Doyle (Sherlock Holmes) for example.

Also any Gothic Romance - The Mysteries of Udolpho by Anne Radcliffe, The woman in white by Wilkie Collins, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde etc.

Zadie Smith's 'White Tooth' is a popular text these days. Only written in the 1990s ...

I agree with everyone else someone who does not read for pleasure should not do an english lit. degree!. Ask her to take a look at a few books on the courses suggested reading, we covered:
Paradise Lost-Milton
Dracula-Brahm Stoker
Frankenstein-Shelley
Various Edgar Allen Poe, Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett, Seamus Heaney and lots more most of which I adored some I couldnt wait to finish (Dantes Inferno anyone?)!.
There is a lot of reading around the text in question and IMO it would simply terrify a non-reader.

I'd probably recommend that she built herself up to the heavier stuff but would definitely agree with those who have recommended The Great Gatsby and Zadie Smith's White Teeth. Also agree with Kate Atkinson. I had to read Behind The Scenes at the Museum during my first year at uni and loved it.

Another writer to consider is Oscar Wilde. I whizzed through his collection as a teen and they were not a chore to read in the slightest. They're light and funny and an easy way in.

Please, for the love of god, suggest another option for her. A levels appear to be a terrific shock for young people who do genuinely love their subjects (ie ones doing English who do like reading).

I would have a varied list. Bleak House. Invisible Monsters. Game of thrones. Maybe Harry potter just because its so successful.

I agree with motherinferior....although I'm vaguely surprised to see someone else say this! Most people think that English Lit pre-uni is so stringent, worthy, broad, deep....if AS is anything to go by, it's not. It's flat- involves lots of soul sucking hoop jumping- the teacher just about leads you through by the hand. I got Es for exam essays during the year, but full marks in coursework, was a complete fluke, am rather ashamed...
If she likes GCSE and clicks with it, she'll probably cope well with A level. Much the same style although different mark scheme etc.
I know one or two people who are not readers at all and they are the type of people to get 100% in English essays, look through the English Review, get their token quotes. But for a degree, well, I don't know, but it can't be the same, surely...they do tell you to forget everything you've been "taught" at A level, which they'd have to do if it were to be a degree worth its salt.

English lit degree courses are highly competitive. If she doesn't read she will find it very difficult. There are lots of other courses such as film studies and American literature she could investigate.

maybe she isn't reading much because she has a lot on her plate atm with school and homework. Perhaps in the holidays , she reads willingly. If so, what kind of books does she like to read when she gets round to it?

I'm not sure whether to or at the idea that a degree in American literature would somehow involve less reading than one in English literature.

Campergirl I didn't mean it would require less reading I just thought it might be more entertaining and bring a different perspective to what she already knows about literature.Same with film studies although I don't know about course content, so am probably wrong. Also that maybe these two would be less popular in British universities so she would have a better chance of being accepted onto a degree course. You do realise that English Lit degrees course are amongst the most over subscribed courses in universities today (wll until the recent cost hike - don't know the latest figures)?

Am Lit is not offered as a degree subject on its own though mirry2, only as a subsidiary of/module selection within Eng Lit degrees. Or perhaps you're thinking of interdisciplinary American Studies, which usually includes Am Lit, but also politics, history, media etc? All those disciplines require a lot of reading though - just not of literary texts. Any humanities degree will (at a half-decent university, anyway).

I am an English lecturer, so I do know how popular it is as a degree. Our applications have not been affected by the fee hike so far. But I don't see the point in this girl manoeuvring to get onto a less competitive degree that won't actually suit her. No humanities lecturers I know are keen on students who moan about having to do a lot of reading...

The kinds of things I was reading at school outside the syllabus were early novels such as Tristram Shandy, Madame Bovary, Austen and Fanny Burney, Sylvia Plath, Waugh, plus modern German short stories and plays in translation.

My English degree involved some, but not much, literary theory. I went to Cambridge which emphasises practical criticism of the words on the page and suited me down to the ground. The Oxford syllabus was much heavier on theory, iirc, which I would have struggled with.

For personal reasons I lost momentum with my degree and ended up having to scrape my way through finals. I still find it hard to finish books now, and rarely if ever pick up a classic. But I was a voracious reader and agree that's the most important characteristic for a potential English student. Without lots of enthusiasm your niece will struggle to get through the reading.

She really needs to love reading to get through an english lit degree. Admittedly, it's been a few years since i graduated, but I had a heavy reading load. 3 novels/books/poetry collections per week minimum, plus background reading and reading appropriate criticism. It's a hard workload.

I would say she doesn't have to enjoy everything she reads though - I truly hated my wordsworth and coleridge module, and barely tolerated some of the set texts for first year!!

Does she have a uni in mind? Perhaps a look at some of their "set texts" would help.

In first year, we covered a broad range of works including Beowulf, Toni Morrison's 'Beloved', Thomas Hardy 'Jude the Obscure', Shakespeare, 'Moll Flanders', 'Heart of Darkness'. I studied Holocaust fiction, Late Medieval fiction, Scottish lit and Elizabethan Tragedy in 2nd year. From those courses, I'd highly reccomend Alaisdair Gray 'Lanark', Janice Galloway 'The Trick is to Keep Breathing', Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (not necessarily the whole thing, but bits of it), Shakespeare's King Lear and Charlotte Delbo's 'Auschwitz and After' - in fact, I'd almost go as far as to say, if that last one doesn't grab her interest in some way, Literature isn't for her!! The subject matter is often unpleasant, but there is something very mesmerising about the way she writes!

In my last year, I studied, English Ghost Stories (nothing stands out from that really), Early children's literature (including Little House on the Prarie and The Family from One End Street), modern children's fiction (including Harry Potter, 'Lady My Life As A Bitch' and loads more) and crime fiction (from Wilkie Collins to Ian Rankin).

I'd say she really just needs a varied interest in reading.

I'd recommend Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy, the Charlotte Delbo, 'Lanark', the Janice Galloway, Shakespeare (direct her to the BBC adaptations 'Shakespeare Retold' which are excellent modern interpretations). Anything she likes to read, really. Perhaps other stuff by authors whose work she currently enjoys reading at school?

I would give her something that might nudge her onto a different path, tbh. If English is her favourite/best subject at school, maybe she hasn't yet thought of possible ideas for her future that don't involve a school subject. I just can't imagine her completing an English degree if she doesn't love reading more than anything. An English literature degree is the assault course of the arts IMO, it is t o u g h.

So: Surely You're Joking, Mr Feynman! by Richard Feynman
The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker
The Colosseum or Pompeii: Life in a Roman Town by Mary Beard
Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo
Ugly by Constance Briscoe

Never too late to get into reading. some of the crap marketed towards teens recently can be a put off. How about giving her some of the suggestions listed in this thread - great ideas I must admit, and if she hasn't read at least 5 by September, tell her to pick something else to study!!
Also try some modern classics
The Blind Assassin
Birdsong
A Prayer for Own Meany
Never Let Me Go
The Crow Road

Maybe she should look at a linguistics degree rather than literature. Otherwise I'd suggest you start taking her to the theatre - and go often, that might entice her to read the book. ds1 is due to start on an English lit degree come the autumn and seems to have his head in a book all the time - and its never a set text! Off the top of my head the books I have seen on lists he has printed off from ucas applications include

Malcom X
Martin Luther King
Allen Ginsberg/Jack Karouac/Neil Cassidy
Coleridge
Zola
Plath/Hughes
Chinua Achebe
Chaucer
Beowulf
CS Lewis
Homer
Walt Whitman

Almost all courses seem to have modules covering Shakespeare Dickens and Austin. If she finds them all boring then English lit is not something she ought to spend £9K a year on.

She's probably got a great English teacher at the moment, who's inspired her enough for her to believe she loves English, despite not enjoying reading. Don't forget, English Lit GCSE only involves reading one novel (amongst other texts), and some teachers manage to get them through by reading carefully selected extracts. The GCSE doesn't prepare them well enough for making informed A level choices, let alone degree decisions. I teach English at Secondary level and, unfortunately, it has become a largely extract-based subject.