making a reading list

[yoda slayer]

I am going to be spending 7 months aboard next year and I want to start making a reading list. I will be 18, but my reading level is high for my age. Unabridged Dickens is fine. I am most interested in reading about
-Sailing
-Economics (Austrian, no Keynesian please )
-History
-Philosophy
-Etc etc
I know this is a really broad list... but I would love to hear suggestions
Also just keep in mind I will be keeping a list of the books I read for any colleges to review.
Thanks in advance.

[s/v Jedi]

Here is the best book ever read by 6 different people who all read many many books:

The Flanders Panel
by Arturo Perez-Reverte (Paperback)

Naturalist
by Laura Simonds Southworth (Paperback)

Les Miserables (Clothbound Classics)
by Victor Hugo (Hardcover)

A Dance to the Music of Time: First Movement
by Anthony Powell (Paperback)

Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)
by Frank Herbert (Paperback)

Bugles and a Tiger: My Life in the Gurkhas (Cassell Military Paperbacks)
by John Masters (Paperback)

[Stu Jackson]

For sailing books, do a search on this or other boating forums, this is a regular recurring topic.

Good luck, happy reading.

[Cheechako]

Wind From the Carolinas- Wilder
An Island to Oneself- Tom Neale
The Hungry Ocean- Linda Greenlaw
Papillion
All of Steinbeck

[SVNeko]

Do not fail to bring The Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers.

[msponer]

What fun!

If you're likely to go to a highly selective college, and this is part of your admission strategy, I'd buy the books for the first three or four classes you'd take in your major. To both make sure that it's something you actually want to study, and to make a narrative for the admissions folks that you are directed, passionate, and know what you like. Professors like young people with those qualities. If you do end up taking those classes, I think you'll get a lot more out of them since you'll already know the basics and can then focus on the lectures and what's not in the book. At least at highly selective 'firehose' type colleges, where there's much more depth available than almost anyone can absorb. This might be a bad idea at a less difficult college, if the lectures are uninspired and everyone is bored (and not trying hard) -- you'll be even more bored in your second pass through the material. And the admissions offices there are a bit more like a bad corporate HR department, and less looking for a story in each student than a bunch of numbers and tick boxes, so I'm guessing a summer reading list would barely move the needle.

Anyways, I 'read ahead' in high school for computer science and realized that it was something I could learn on my own. That, and that there were no girls in CS at the time, pushed me to another major.

In my part of the economic world, T shaped people are highly valued -- the idea being people with very broad knowledge in a lot of fields, but a lot of depth in one area. This is in contrast to a 'renaissance man', who is wide but with no specialty. So I suggest that you read widely about a lot of different things, but to pick an area to focus on. Read at least four or five books on this area, of increasing depth. So that if you are trying to write a story with your reading, you have something substantial to hang it on and frame it as, and so that you can also talk about it somewhat insightfully or intelligently.

[yoda slayer]

Originally Posted by msponer

What fun!

If you're likely to go to a highly selective college, and this is part of your admission strategy, I'd buy the books for the first three or four classes you'd take in your major. To both make sure that it's something you actually want to study, and to make a narrative for the admissions folks that you are directed, passionate, and know what you like. Professors like young people with those qualities. If you do end up taking those classes, I think you'll get a lot more out of them since you'll already know the basics and can then focus on the lectures and what's not in the book. At least at highly selective 'firehose' type colleges, where there's much more depth available than almost anyone can absorb. This might be a bad idea at a less difficult college, if the lectures are uninspired and everyone is bored (and not trying hard) -- you'll be even more bored in your second pass through the material. And the admissions offices there are a bit more like a bad corporate HR department, and less looking for a story in each student than a bunch of numbers and tick boxes, so I'm guessing a summer reading list would barely move the needle.

Anyways, I 'read ahead' in high school for computer science and realized that it was something I could learn on my own. That, and that there were no girls in CS at the time, pushed me to another major.

In my part of the economic world, T shaped people are highly valued -- the idea being people with very broad knowledge in a lot of fields, but a lot of depth in one area. This is in contrast to a 'renaissance man', who is wide but with no specialty. So I suggest that you read widely about a lot of different things, but to pick an area to focus on. Read at least four or five books on this area, of increasing depth. So that if you are trying to write a story with your reading, you have something substantial to hang it on and frame it as, and so that you can also talk about it somewhat insightfully or intelligently.

I actually think I want to go to College of Charleston. I have already been accepted, but they assured me I would need to write about my trip (they clearly just want to live vicariously ) . I THINK I want to double major in Economics and International business. Just some more info.

[msponer]

Oh, congratulations! Then ignore me and pay attention to everyone else.

But if you are getting bored reading about general history, philosophy, or economics -- I tend to find that it's more compelling to focus on some theme and then read a series of books on that. So, for example, History 'in general' is very boring, but History of Math, or History of Military Strategy, or History of Money, and etc -- are oddly compelling and I can read a handful of books in a row on a single focused theme like that.

Everyone's different, but just a suggestion if you find yourself falling asleep with broader books.

[yoda slayer]

Originally Posted by msponer

Oh, congratulations! Then ignore me and pay attention to everyone else.

But if you are getting bored reading about general history, philosophy, or economics -- I tend to find that it's more compelling to focus on some theme and then read a series of books on that. So, for example, History 'in general' is very boring, but History of Math, or History of Military Strategy, or History of Money, and etc -- are oddly compelling and I can read a handful of books in a row on a single focused theme like that.

Everyone's different, but just a suggestion if you find yourself falling asleep with broader books.

I would agree with this 100%
I already have a book about the history of salt.

[Dhillen]

These books are ones that will make you think and if read you will likely return to them again and again over the years:

"The Fountainhead," Ayn Rand

"How to Make Friends and Influence People," Dale Carnegie

"Reminiscences of a Stock Operator," Edwin LeFevre

"The Great Crash," JK Galbraith

"The Prince," Niccolo Machiavelli

"Moby Dick," Herman Melville

Good luck with your education and with school. Please remember they are not the same thing.

Dhillen

[ewsponberg]

I'd recommend my wife's books, Arliss Ryan:

The Kingsley House (St. Martin's Press, historical fiction, based on her family)

How (not) To Have a Perfect Wedding (Source Books, social satire)

The Secret Confessions of Anne Shakespeare (Penguin, historical fiction, how Will's wife Anne could have been the true genius behind the plays)

All are available through Amazon and Barnes and Noble, including Kindle and Nook versions.

You can visit her website and blog at: www.arlissryan.com

Eric

[JK n Smitty]

Originally Posted by msponer

Oh, congratulations! Then ignore me and pay attention to everyone else.

But if you are getting bored reading about general history, philosophy, or economics -- I tend to find that it's more compelling to focus on some theme and then read a series of books on that. So, for example, History 'in general' is very boring, but History of Math, or History of Military Strategy, or History of Money, and etc -- are oddly compelling and I can read a handful of books in a row on a single focused theme like that.

Everyone's different, but just a suggestion if you find yourself falling asleep with broader books.

I agree, Debt: the First 5,000 years would be my addition to that list.

Some others are Thinking, Fast and Slow, Freakanomics and Super Freakanomics, Free to Choose: A Personal Statement, Atlas Shrugged, Fight Club (the book is different than the movie but both are good in my opinion) and Germs, Guns and Steel.

Fair winds,

Jesse

[yoda slayer]

Thank you all for the suggestions! I will admit I do like fiction quite a bit as well. My favorite author is Cormac McCarthy. I am reading everyone's posts!

[mbianka]

A couple that I can recommend that may suit you:

TITAN interesting biography of John D. Rockefeller

Desperate Voyage by John Caldwell

RIVER AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by Simon Winchester

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by mbianka

A couple that I can recommend that may suit you:

TITAN interesting biography of John D. Rockefeller

Desperate Voyage by John Caldwell

RIVER AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH by Simon Winchester

Ah, and that leads to Island at the center of the world by Russell Shorto