Top 10 Books to Read Before Starting University

Labeled a “hippie novel” by many, Tom Robbins’ Even Cowgirls Get the Blues is a story which covers themes of free love, political and social rebellion, animal rights, drug use and religion, spanning from the 1950s to the 1970s. We follow the story of Sissy Hankshaw, a woman born with the gift of huge thumbs, who hitchhikes through her coming-of-age journey via a homosexual tycoon, a lesbian cowgirl named Bonanza Jellybean and an escapee from a Japanese internment camp. Just as the hippie movement did, Robbins poses underlying questions about human existence and what it is to be free in society. And although often sexually explicit and sometimes farcical, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues is perfect for any student wanting to break the mold.

Now adapted into the hugely successful blockbuster film directed by Ang Lee, Life of Pi is the story of ‘Pi’, an Indian boy who winds up stranded on a lifeboat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, alone except for a zebra, a hyena, a chimpanzee and a 450-pound Bengal tiger. While the very concept is preposterous, Martel’s wondrously crafted, purposeful prose somehow makes the tale hard not to believe. Overtly, Life of Pi is about staying alive against all odds, but more implicitly it also tackles themes of solitude, religion and faith, as well as the relativity of truth. Any student who enjoys realism yet hates dull, slow-moving prose will love Life of Pi.

Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis is a novella as absurd as it is powerful, centered on the character of Gregor Samsa, who has been transformed into a giant insect-like creature in his sleep. Kafka, known for his strange insights into the tragedy and horror of the modern world, manages to create a novel which is both comic and disturbing, while highlighting modern feelings of inadequacy and isolation in contemporary society. Considered one of the most influential works of the 20^th century, Metamorphosis will change the way you see both yourself and the people around you, and also help you to get your head around the idea of existentialism.

Published in 1949, 1984 is a dystopian novel about a future society which lives under total government surveillance, where citizens are persecuted for any independent thought or action. The story follows Winston Smith, an ordinary man working for the Ministry of Truth, who begins to rebel inwardly against the party in a search for truth, freedom and love. Another one of the 20^th century’s greatest literary legacies, 1984, which brought about the concepts of ‘room 101’, ‘doublethink’ and ‘big brother’, is a disturbing read but also a very eye-opening one. For those of you already well-versed in Orwell, you may want to take a look at Orwell’s A Selection of Essays, which offers political writing at its creative best.

Written between 1928 and 1940 but remaining unpublished until 1967, Mikhail Bulgakov’s The Master and Margarita is one of the most scathingly satirical novels to come out of Stalin’s Soviet Union. A fantastical novel as much as a political one, the story is set in Soviet Moscow, where God is dead and the devil reigns. As the city descends into chaos and destruction, the Master, and his love Margarita, attempt to stop their city from crumbling amidst a narrative of carnivalesque tyrants, demons and even a talking cat. Best read in historical context to the repressions of the Soviet era, The Master and Margarita plays with the notions of good and evil, guilt and innocence, as well as a number of other binaries, allowing Bulgakov to satirize and pull apart the societal issues his nation had been facing at the time of writing. Although hefty, The Master and Margarita makes this list of top 10 books to read before starting university not only for its literary brilliance, but also its sheer political gumption.

Martin Amis’s first novel The Rachel Papers tells the self-involved tale of Charles Highway, a 20-year-old university student, as he prepares for his entrance exams into Oxford University and attempts to win the love of Rachel, a girl he meets at a party. As egotistical as he is intellectual, Charles is an example of a character both hateable and relatable to many prospective students of the same age. What The Rachel Papers explores, through the neurotic and calculated yet equally sincere character of Charles, is how narcissistic the pursuits of love and knowledge can become. Students should read this novel because it is a truthful, unabashed and funny account of how easy it is to be too self-involved and overeducated in adolescence.

The most recently published title in this list of top 10 books to read before starting university, On Beauty is the story of a mixed race British/American family living in a fictitious university town in the US. The book addresses themes of race, nationality, cultural disparity and the clash of liberalism and conservatism. In keeping with the title, beauty is also a key theme and Smith, who is currently a lecturer at NYU, uses her novel to explore the nature of beauty with humor and deep insight. On Beauty is relevant for students not only because it covers 21^st century issues, but also because it does so in a straight-talking, profane and accessible way.

What would go on your list of top 10 books to read before starting university? Share your recommendations in the comments below.    

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