General Education

Best Books for the College Bound

Best Books for the College Bound
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Noodle Staff March 15, 2012

Getting ready to head off to college? Get a sneak peek of what to expect with these ten awesome books set on college campuses.

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Whether you're heading off to college in the fall or heading home for the summer, here are 10 of our favorite novels set on college campuses, guaranteed to satisfy your curiosity or homesickness.

Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis

This hilarious satire centers around a British Medieval history lecturer, Jim, as he navigates the politics of academic life.

This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Fitzgerald's debut novel chronicles the youth of Amory Blaine, a Princeton student, as he deals with greed and romance post-WWI.

Wonder Boys by Micheal Chabon

An entertaining novel about the antics of a middle-aged novelist and professor with a serious case of writer's block.

A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

Woolf's celebrated collection of essays are about women's access to education, women's rights, and the role of the female writer.

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

The story of a South African professor who has an affair with a student told in a beautiful, minimalist style.

Absalom, Absalom! Faulkner

This Southern gothic tale set around the Civil War focuses on the life of Thomas Sutpen as told by his old Harvard roommate and others who knew him.

Stoner by John Williams

John Williams' 1965 novel focuses on the everyday life of Stoner, an undistinguished English professor.

Moo Jane Smiley

This comedic novel is set on the fictional campus of Moo University in 1989, with overlapping stories and plots of dozens of characters.

Tam Lin by Pamela Dean

Dean's novel is a re-telling of a traditional Scottish fairy ballad set at a fictional college in the early 1970's. It tells the story of one girl's student days.

Shakespeare's Sonnets by Samuel Park

Adam Greenhurst is a student at Harvard in the late 1940s who's life is right on track until his love for another man is discovered. Threatened with expulsion, Adam takes a class on Shakespeare's sonnets that teaches him more than he expected.

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