Which books remind you most of university -- your own, or university in general -- and/or of campus life, or your/a given university's interaction(s) with the city where it is located?

1

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5

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3.90 avg rating — 85,343 ratings
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3.48 avg rating — 125,013 ratings
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8

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3.61 avg rating — 39,046 ratings
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9

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4.13 avg rating — 76,787 ratings
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10

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3.75 avg rating — 32,564 ratings
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11

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3.98 avg rating — 15,377 ratings
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12

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4.17 avg rating — 160,843 ratings
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13

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3.79 avg rating — 234,752 ratings
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14

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3.67 avg rating — 1,004 ratings
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15

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3.72 avg rating — 52,409 ratings
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16

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3.63 avg rating — 80,937 ratings
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17

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4.16 avg rating — 52,148 ratings
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18

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19

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3.82 avg rating — 9,377 ratings
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20

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3.86 avg rating — 129,322 ratings
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21

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4.06 avg rating — 74,261 ratings
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22

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3.92 avg rating — 46,404 ratings
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23

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3.66 avg rating — 64,888 ratings
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24

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4.29 avg rating — 197,149 ratings
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25

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4.08 avg rating — 427,572 ratings
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26

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3.46 avg rating — 28,541 ratings
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27

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4.19 avg rating — 32,634 ratings
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28

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3.64 avg rating — 110,807 ratings
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28

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3.16 avg rating — 1,858 ratings
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30

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3.74 avg rating — 195,725 ratings
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31

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3.93 avg rating — 6,021,076 ratings
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32

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3.99 avg rating — 116,407 ratings
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33

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3.68 avg rating — 17,612 ratings
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34

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3.54 avg rating — 30,557 ratings
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35

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3.42 avg rating — 42,985 ratings
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35

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3.93 avg rating — 785,403 ratings
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37

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4.29 avg rating — 169,368 ratings
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38

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3.53 avg rating — 280,645 ratings
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39

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3.76 avg rating — 23,137 ratings
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39

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3.87 avg rating — 30,279 ratings
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41

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3.94 avg rating — 70 ratings
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42

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4.08 avg rating — 59,783 ratings
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43

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3.88 avg rating — 29,415 ratings
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44

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3.60 avg rating — 3,003 ratings
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45

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3.60 avg rating — 234,186 ratings
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46

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4.22 avg rating — 270,292 ratings
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47

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4.14 avg rating — 17,688 ratings
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48

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3.84 avg rating — 76,783 ratings
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49

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3.93 avg rating — 7,151 ratings
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50

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4.33 avg rating — 3,204 ratings
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51

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4.08 avg rating — 99,258 ratings
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52

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4.07 avg rating — 202,737 ratings
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53

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3.78 avg rating — 92,380 ratings
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54

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4.25 avg rating — 103,393 ratings
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54

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3.84 avg rating — 5,832 ratings
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56

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3.73 avg rating — 9,433 ratings
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57

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3.79 avg rating — 501,690 ratings
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58

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4.01 avg rating — 42,732 ratings
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59

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3.83 avg rating — 16,267 ratings
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60

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3.47 avg rating — 8,618 ratings
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61

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4.03 avg rating — 18,324 ratings
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62

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4.02 avg rating — 563,788 ratings
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63

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3.63 avg rating — 5,500 ratings
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64

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4.11 avg rating — 240,640 ratings
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65

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3.78 avg rating — 10,341 ratings
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66

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3.95 avg rating — 11,666 ratings
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67

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3.97 avg rating — 199,866 ratings
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68

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3.47 avg rating — 2,882 ratings
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69

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70

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4.12 avg rating — 221 ratings
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71

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3.69 avg rating — 333 ratings
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72

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3.39 avg rating — 465 ratings
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73

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3.47 avg rating — 963 ratings
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74

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4.05 avg rating — 38,304 ratings
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74

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3.97 avg rating — 1,880 ratings
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76

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3.45 avg rating — 75,248 ratings
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77

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78

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3.85 avg rating — 24,747 ratings
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78

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4.21 avg rating — 66,183 ratings
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80

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really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 32,396 ratings
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81

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3.66 avg rating — 31,839 ratings
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82

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3.44 avg rating — 3,084 ratings
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82

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3.75 avg rating — 227 ratings
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84

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3.54 avg rating — 964 ratings
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85

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4.20 avg rating — 30,961 ratings
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86

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4.01 avg rating — 59,492 ratings
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87

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4.01 avg rating — 601,320 ratings
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88

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3.78 avg rating — 325 ratings
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89

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3.68 avg rating — 4,113 ratings
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90

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3.61 avg rating — 13,492 ratings
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91

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3.78 avg rating — 3,737 ratings
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92

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3.64 avg rating — 3,474 ratings
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93

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4.13 avg rating — 535 ratings
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94

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3.79 avg rating — 19,438 ratings
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95

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3.63 avg rating — 4,279 ratings
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96

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3.57 avg rating — 1,540 ratings
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97

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3.83 avg rating — 87,229 ratings
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98

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3.94 avg rating — 27,397 ratings
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99

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3.75 avg rating — 67 ratings
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99

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3.94 avg rating — 118 ratings
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156 likes · 
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Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) 546 books
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Comments Showing 1-19 of 19 (19 new)

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message 1: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Great idea for a list. I feel like there are hundreds we're missing.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) There must be! So many great places of learning ... there's no way they didn't leave their imprint on the cities where they're located -- and on literature, of course. And it's not just the likes of Harvard and Yale, or Oxbridge and the Sorbonne for that matter!

And then: I certainly don't want to flaunt anything, but I've purposely listed a few books by teachers who have particularly impacted me, because I can't think of university without thinking of these teachers as well. God knows not every prof is a "born" (or even a halfway decent) teacher, but undoubtedly some of them are -- and some are impressive personalities into the bargain, though I'd rather have a great teacher than an impressive personality for a prof -- and their universities are the richer for them as well. For purposes of this list, that's really all that should matter. If you can't think of university without remembering a given person (and that person happens to have published something), that's really all it takes for their name to belong on this list ...


message 3: by Thom (new)

Thom Dunn Themis-Athena wrote: "There must be! So many great places of learning ... there's no way they didn't leave their imprint on the cities where they're located -- and on literature, of course. And it's not just the likes..."

I have put two classics of the English Public School, the ramp up to the gentile British education (which in my case I have not got).

Wish I could think of more like Smiley's "Moo", expositions of the middle-American cow college.


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) FWIW, I've started creating a series of lists for individual universities:

Oxford University: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/21...
Cambridge University: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/21...
Cornell University: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/21...
Iowa Writers' Workshop: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/21...
Università di Bologna: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/21...
Bonn University: http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/21...

More to come in due course. If anybody feels like pitching in, though, by all means go ahead!


message 5: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl I just noticed this one for Scripps College Faculty and Alums:

http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/21...


message 6: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl And there's University of Chicago Law School - Faculty:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/34...

and Univ. of Chicago alumni:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/21...


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Oh yes, cool -- thanks for mentioning those!


message 8: by Cheyenne (new)

Cheyenne Just thought I would add Starter for Ten because it is very funny and a great read


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) This Girl Loves Books wrote: "Just thought I would add Starter for Ten because it is very funny and a great read"

I'm not familiar with it, but if it reminds you of university, by all means go ahead! (There's a tab up top next to "all votes" -- using that tab, everybody can add books to a list.)


message 10: by Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) (last edited Dec 07, 2012 07:05AM) (new)

Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Lobstergirl wrote: "And there's University of Chicago Law School - Faculty:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/34...

and Univ. of Chicago alumni:
http..."


There's a new one for St. Louis University alumni and facultiy as well:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/28...

And Taft alumni:
http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/17...


message 11: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl A Separate Peace is set at a high school. Is the list limited to post high school education?


Themis-Athena (Lioness at Large) Definitely post-high school only (and sorry for the belated reply). Removed.


message 13: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Is nonfiction allowed?


message 14: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Othello takes place on a campus?


message 15: by Liam (new)

Liam Ostermann This is supposed to about 'campus' or college/university, definitely third level education not secondary or high school books - I thought it was supposed to be novels there are a lot of non fiction books here, but can anyone explain why any of the following are on this list:

William Shakespeare, Othello
Chaim Potok, The Chosen
Margaret Edison, Wit
Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
David Foster Wallace, The Broom of the System
Heather McDonald, The Diversity Dilemma
Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling
Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
Richard Farina, Been Down So Long it Looks like Up to Me
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and other Essays
E M Forster, The Longest Journey
Toni Morrison, Beloved
Evelyn Waugh, Handful of Dust
Bernhard Schlink, The Reader
F Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
Julian Barnes, A Sense of an Ending
Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites
David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest
Frantz Fanon, Wretched if the Earth
Wallace Stegner, Crossing to Safety
P G Wodehouse, the Inevitable Jeeves
Thomas Hardy, Return of the Native
Paul Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air
David Foster Wallace, a supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments
Lea Wait, Shadows at the Fair

The following novels listed are all novels associated with high school or its equivalent in the UK or elsewhere:

Alan Bennett, The History Boys
Larry McMurtry, The Last Picture Show
Joan Lindsay, Picnic at Hanging Rock
Curtis Shittenfeld, Prep
Kate Lowe, The Furies
R F Delderfield, To Serve Them all My Days
Lev Grossman, The Magicians
James Hinton. goodbye Mr Chips
N H Kleinbaun, Dead Poets Society
David Lodge, Changing Places
Corinne Sullivan, Indecent
Thomas Hughes, Tom Brown's Schooldays
John Knowles, A Separate Peace

This selection is only from the first 200 books listed and is probably not exhaustive as I grew bored as the extent of wrongly listed books became apparent.

What is the point of starting these lists if you aren't going to monitor or keep track of items posted? I stopped at item 198 because I thought these might have been posted first and thus you would expect the originators or monitors of the list to have been taking an interest!? Maybe some of these books were posted as a joke to see if anyone would notice!? Is there any way that one can suggest to Goodreads that they delegate a list because it is total crap?! Maybe nobody cares? Does anybody care?

There is nothing wrong with a list of books relating to university experiences or fiction set there or histories of university in the abstract or in particular institutions. But this list does not help anyone interested in those subjects to find relevant books. It just wastes vast amount of time.


message 16: by Chrissy (new)

Chrissy Changing Places and The Magicians both take place at college/university level places, not high school.


message 17: by Liam (new)

Liam Ostermann Chrissy wrote: "Changing Places and The Magicians both take place at college/university level places, not high school."

I admit that I confused David Lodge's book with 'Vice Versa' very careless and stupid of me. I still wonder about 'The Magicians' as it is about a high school senior who goes to Magician college - which is surely stretching the meaning of a campus/university novel to its limit? In Ireland and the UK the word 'college' is regularly attached to secondary schools (12-18 years) though I can not say for sure what Mr. Grossman meant by the appellation.

Even conceding that these errors it doesn't really change the bulk of my complaint which no one has bothered to respond to - so I am very grateful for your response.


message 18: by Lobstergirl (new)

Lobstergirl Lobstergirl wrote: "Othello takes place on a campus?"

I removed Othello but I don't have time to remove others which are wrongly on the list.


message 19: by Liam (new)

Liam Ostermann Lobstergirl wrote: "Lobstergirl wrote: "Othello takes place on a campus?"

I removed Othello but I don't have time to remove others which are wrongly on the list."


I don't intend to make work for anyone - I am just amazed that anyone added them to a list of campus novels!


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