Beach Books: 2012-2013

Peter Wood

Each academic year, hundreds of colleges and universities assign a book as “common reading” to students. These assignments are often emblematic of colleges’ values. Common reading programs may be mandatory or optional and are designed for new students, honors students, or the entire student body. Because many colleges use common reading programs as a way to initiate new students, the selected book is often the first college-level intellectual endeavor that students will be asked to make—and their first experience of college reading.

Since 2010, the National Association of Scholars has been studying college common reading programs to find out what books are selected, how many and what kinds of colleges have such programs, and how these assignments are integrated into campuses’ academic life. 

This is a trend to pay attention to and can be seen as a microcosm of college life that can illuminate the particular concepts that American colleges and universities care about and the kind of reading they expect of their students.

Our 2012-2013 study covers 309 colleges and universities and the 190 books they assigned.

Download the report (pdf): Beach Books 2012-2013: What Do Colleges and Universities Want Students to Read Outside Class?


See also:

Readers Weigh In on Teaching the Classics

50 Recommended Books for College Common Reading

2011-2012 Beach Books

2010-2011 Beach Books

 

Image: © Joseph Robertson

  • Share

Most Commented

October 29, 2024

1.

The Looming Irrelevance of Middle East Study Centers

Today’s Middle Eastern Studies Centers are facing a crisis due to the winds of change in the Middle East and their own ideological echo chamber....

November 19, 2024

2.

Lee Zeldin Should Reform EPA Science Policy

NAS welcomes the nomination of Congressmen Lee Zeldin to lead the Environmental Protection Agency....

November 20, 2024

3.

NAS Welcomes Administrator McMahon's Nomination to Serve as Education Secretary

With McMahon, the new administration has a chance to drastically slim down and depoliticize the Education Department....

Most Read

May 15, 2015

1.

Where Did We Get the Idea That Only White People Can Be Racist?

A look at the double standard that has arisen regarding racism, illustrated recently by the reaction to a black professor's biased comments on Twitter....

October 12, 2010

2.

Ask a Scholar: What is the True Definition of Latino?

What does it mean to be Latino? Are only Latin American people Latino, or does the term apply to anyone whose language derived from Latin?...

May 26, 2010

3.

10 Reasons Not to Go to College

A sampling of arguments for the idea that college may not be for everyone....