Is Baron Trump reading Murakami in WSP?
A back-to-school book list and August meeting tickets.
Not yet. That's my friend Andi, an NYU student and now a classmate of Baron's.
I wanted to write a back-to-school reading list, so we went to Washington Square Park to ask NYU kids what they're reading.
I asked everyone if these books were personal picks or class requirements and almost all of them were personal picks. Even the guy reading Dostoevsky! Reading is so back.
So, without further ado, here’s a...
Crowdsourced back-to-school reading list
Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald
“Set in the south of France in the late 1920s, Tender Is the Night is the tragic tale of a young actress, Rosemary Hoyt, and her complicated relationship with the alluring American couple Dick and Nicole Diver. A brilliant psychiatrist at the time of his marriage, Dick is both husband and doctor to Nicole, whose wealth pushed him into a glamorous lifestyle, and whose growing strength highlights Dick’s decline.”
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
“When Raskolnikov, an impoverished student living in the St. Petersburg of the tsars, commits an act of murder and theft, he sets into motion a story that is almost unequalled in world literature for its excruciating suspense, its atmospheric vividness, and its depth of characterization and vision. Dostoevsky’s drama of sin, guilt, and redemption transforms the sordid story of an old woman’s murder into the nineteenth century’s profoundest and most compelling philosophical novel.”
Sanctuary by William Faulkner
“Psychologically astute and wonderfully poetic, Sanctuary is a powerful novel examining the nature of true evil, through the prisms of mythology, local lore, and hard-boiled detective fiction. This is the dark, at times brutal, story of the kidnapping of Mississippi debutante Temple Drake, who introduces her own form of venality into the Memphis underworld where she is being held.”
The Analects by Confucius
“The Master said, “If a man sets his heart on benevolence, he will be free from evil”
The Analects are a collection of Confucius’s sayings brought together by his pupils shortly after his death in 497 BC. Together they express a philosophy, or a moral code, by which Confucius, one of the most humane thinkers of all time, believed everyone should live. Upholding the ideals of wisdom, self-knowledge, courage and love of one’s fellow man, he argued that the pursuit of virtue should be every individual’s supreme goal. And, while following the Way, or the truth, might not result in immediate or material gain, Confucius showed that it could nevertheless bring its own powerful and lasting spiritual rewards.”
The Glass Ocean by by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig, and Karen White
“From the New York Times bestselling authors of The Forgotten Room comes a captivating historical mystery, infused with romance, that links the lives of three women across a century—two deep in the past, one in the present—to the doomed passenger liner, RMS Lusitania.”
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
“When everything is lost, it’s our stories that survive.
How do we weather the end of things? Cloud Cuckoo Land brings together an unforgettable cast of dreamers and outsiders from past, present and future to offer a vision of survival against all odds.”
Just Kids by Patti Smith
“In Just Kids, Patti Smith's first book of prose, the legendary American artist offers a never-before-seen glimpse of her remarkable relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe in the epochal days of New York City and the Chelsea Hotel in the late sixties and seventies. An honest and moving story of youth and friendship, Smith brings the same unique, lyrical quality to Just Kids as she has to the rest of her formidable body of work--from her influential 1975 album Horses to her visual art and poetry.”
That’s all I’ve got! There were a few Kindles and a lot of MacBooks, but they weren’t as fun to photograph.
I liked this letter. Let me know what you think, and if I should do a second edition in another park.
Last but not least,
I’ve added a second meeting for All Fours by Miranda July
It’s on Wednesday, September 25th, at Madeline’s in Greenpoint. You can get tickets here.
None of the NYU kids were reading the book of the summer, but many of you asked for another meeting for this book.
Thanks to everyone who requested it and responded to my Instagram story—you made this happen!
My comments and DMs are always open for book recommendations and meeting requests. I love hearing from you.
See you next week,
Liz
Love