This post was moved from an older website hosted on a college server. These have been unedited and contain many mistakes, good examples of poor writing, lack of structure, and perhaps even thought. Nevertheless, they do chronicle what I was up to in college.
... for an 8th grader or anyone below the age of 120 Middle school is the perfect time to read. You're smart enough to read chapter books and you have free time because "getting into college" does not take up all your time. Unfortunately, middle school is also the time of awkwardness and its discontents- acne, the opposite sex, and finding the right balance of your own awkwardness with everyone else's. (Sadly, adults are just as awkward, they just stop caring about what other's think.) WELL, to compensate for my lack of reading in middle school, to help other's overcome test score problems, and generally be better individuals, I present some recommended reading. Check out these lists:
- Modern Library's 100 Best Novels- Really great contrast between the Editorial Board's choices and the popular choices
- Modern Library's 100 Best Non-Fiction Books- Again, an interesting contrast with the popular vote
- Radcliffe's 1998 Rival Best Novel list
- Hacker Virgil Griffith's List of Books that Make You Dumb (or rather Books that Correlate with Varying SAT Scores)- This list is great because it shows you the favorite books of a whole generation.
If that isn't enough, I once created an 8th grade booklist (back in high school)! Now that I look at it, it's pretty terrible. Nevertheless, it may still prove beneficial to anyone who wants to read some books. It is an old e-mail to family in Idaho (trying to get my cousin to read... also pre-occupied with awkwardness). I'll update it periodically with books that I think are great (hopefully it will reflect the lists above). The books have to meet two criteria though:
- 8th Grade Reading Level- Could an eighth grader read the book? Many arcane or pedantic texts were knocked out.
- Make me smarter?- Does the book improve reading comprehension or can it change someone's life?
My hope is to pass the list on to my future child in eighth grade and have him/her also fondly ignore it. Feel free to send any other recommendations, suggestions to me at Andrew@andrewlee.com, to me, so I can update this list.