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Life without books is like a life without food. Like food nourishes our body, books nourish our mind. Books are means through which you get acquainted with the experiences of the life of a writer and get to look at the world from a different perspective.
College life is an adventure, and books are a helping hand. It is an age where you must prepare yourself for the world out there, and books can be your guiding light for the same. Developing general knowledge and honing skills must go hand in hand with your college studies.
If you want to develop yourself as a person, you should start coming out of your comfort zones and try something new. You should always try different genres and not stick to the ones you once read in school. If you are a fresher to the world of readers, try to start with something you like and then as you develop your taste, switch genres and try something offbeat.
We as humans do not develop a new productive habit unless an emergency is created for it. However, you must realize that the days of college is the time of your life when you are at the peak of your energy levels. Your college life won't ever return, and you will miss an important aspect of it if you don’t dive into the world of reading.
Here is a list of books every college student must give a try:
1. Becoming by Michelle Obama
Becoming is a powerful memoir written by the Former First Lady of the US. She has written about her journey full of challenges and how she overcame the obstacles of life. She has also thrown light upon the racial issues she faced being a black woman and has also discussed the challenges faced by her by being under her husband’s shadow.
This is the story of an inspiring woman who has talked about her life right from childhood on the South Side of Chicago with the use of wit and honesty. She does not dread of giving strong opinions about her dislike in politics. This inspiring memoir should be read by every person despite the age and gender as it brings in self-reflection and awareness.
2. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
Bad Feminist is a collection of forty essays by a best-selling author and critic Roxane Gay. A wide range of topics including race, sex, politics, and popular culture are covered in her book. Gay calls herself a “bad feminist” because she does not fit into the conventional model of how people perceive feminism to be. She, in fact, likes pink, doesn’t hate men and loves children. It is an intriguing book that must be in your check-list.
3. The Stranger by Albert Camus
Albert Camus, the Nobel Prize laureate of 1957, is gilded as one of the most important literary and philosophical thinkers of the post-war period. This book is written in an eloquent yet simple style and raises questions about our beliefs and truth by someone who is an outsider to this world.
The book begins with the line, “Mother died today. Or maybe yesterday, I don’t know”. It shows how insignificant the world is to him. However, this book is way more than this and must be in the to-do list of every college student.
4. Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Eat Pray Love is about an educated, ambitious married American woman who realizes about the meaninglessness and lack of happiness in her life. After a painful divorce, she travels for self-exploration. She wants to give time and space to herself. So, she quits her job and goes for a year-long journey to figure out what she wants in her life.
She visits various places including India for spiritual exploration. Most of us dream about a happy life, but do we actually work for it? This is a beautifully written book which talks about a woman who takes responsibility for her midlife crisis.
5. Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth by M.K Gandhi
Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth is one of the most influential books of recent history. Gandhi has always been a seeker of Truth, Satyagraha. His autobiography is different because it is not even slightly inclined towards self-appreciation. Rather, he has talked about his insecurities and struggles which the general public is unaware of. He considered himself as poorest of the poor and soon started dressing like them. His devotion to God and his views on racism, violence, and status are discussed in the book. If you want to be a leader, you should always be aware of the leaders around you and M.K Gandhi is a true representation of a leader.
6. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Kite Runner is the first novel by African-American writer Khaled Hosseini. The protagonist of the novel, Amir, is the son of a wealthy merchant and his friend, Hassan belongs to an impoverished caste. This bond is broken by Amir on account of growing unrest in dying years of Afghan monarchy. It is about betrayal, redemption, love, sacrifices, power, ethnic tensions. Although it is a work of fiction, yet it becomes difficult to detach yourself from the book because of its craft.
“This powerful first novel, by an Afghan physician now living in California, tells a story of fierce cruelty and fierce yet redeeming love…In The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini gives us a vivid and engaging story that reminds us how long his people have been struggling to triumph over the forces of violence – forces that continue to threaten them even today.” —The New York Times Book Review
7. When I Hit you: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife by Meena Kandaswamy
This novel accounts the story of a strong woman going through an atrocious marriage. Her husband is a university lecturer, Marxist and one-time revolutionary in South India who uses communist ideas “as a cover for his own sadism”.
Quint says, “Kandaswamy holds a mirror to the society that lives by one question and one question alone, come what may: Log Kya Kahege?” (What will people say?)
8. A Study in Scarlett by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Most of you must’ve heard about Sherlock Holmes and some of you must’ve even read its novel series as well. However, for those who haven’t, and wish to acquaint themselves with Sherlock Holmes and his partner-in-crime-solving, Dr. John Watson, you should start from the beginning. It is classic literature that has shaped detective-storytelling for decades and one of the most amazing pieces of work.
9. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice is a romantic novel, published in three volumes in 1813 or the Georgian era. It is a classic written with wit and humor. It gives a critical commentary on life in the Victorian Era. By revolving the plot on something as common as Marriage, Austen has given this novel a universal appeal such that even two hundred years later, it is read with much interest and zeal. Themes of love, class, reputation, gender, integrity, and family have been covered throughout the book. .
10. The Pregnant King by Devdutt Pattanaik
The importance of mythology goes unnoticed in today’s world. What we don’t realize is the fact that mythology is an important part of our culture. It expands our imagination and awakens curiosity. While we are fascinated by the Western and Greek myths, we should also look back at our roots and see how beautiful our Indian mythologies are. Mahabharata is one of the largest epics. It contains 100,000 couplets which are about seven times the size of Iliad. Due to its size, several characters go unnoticed.
Shilavati is one such character. The Pregnant Woman by Pattanik tells her story. It is a story of a woman who couldn’t be the king because she was a woman.
These are some moving books that every college student must read. These are a mix of moving pieces of mythology, autobiographies, and fiction that sensitizes a reader and develops his/her personality by giving a new outlook towards life.
Written by - Aditi Dudeja
Edited by - Vasudha Sabharwal
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