Recently, ASK invited the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences to participate in updating the CoAS Reading list. The loose guidelines were the same as when the original list was compiled three years ago: suggest works considered to be superior for their intellectual, social, emotional or entertainment value. Comments about the works were encouraged.

Donald Stevens of the Department of History and Politics suggested, among other works, Charles Dickens's, David Copperfield.  "[It's] my son's favorite [novels], and one of mine. I can never forget Miss Murdstone's 'jail of a bag which hung upon her arm by a heavy chain, and shut up like a bite,' or Mr. Micawber's financial advice: 'Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.'" Valerie Fox of English and Philosophy also suggested a Dickens novel, The Pickwick Papers.

Michael Lowe of Psychology suggested Richards Dawkins's The God Delusion, seconded by James Herbert, also of Psychology, who included The Bible in his list.

Robert Gilmore of Physics suggested "3 new, one classic" as represented by John Wray's Right Hand of Sleep, Canaan's Tongue and Lowboy, and, the classic, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam.

Scott Knowles of History and Politics led off his list with Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio:  "Fear, madness, nostalgia, lust—anyone who wants to romanticize small-town life had better get a look at this first."

Alexander Friedlander of Culture and Communication and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences highlighted Alfred Lord's The Singer of Tales, "whichlooks at the oral tradition of poetry in Yugoslavia. Lord and his mentor Milman Parry shed light on Homeric verse and oral works like Beowulf and on the process whereby such works might have been created."

Allan Stegeman, also of Culture and Communications, urged readers not to ignore classics like John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. "If ever you wanted an elegant ethical argument for socialism, you need to look no further than The Grapes of Wrath.  But beyond that, Steinbeck has constructed a gorgeous epic journey which not only highlights America during the Great Depression, but our joint, ongoing story of the human condition as well."
Dr. Richard Rosen of the Department of History and Politics suggested: "A book that influenced me many years ago is The Confessions of St. Augustine. While it is sometimes difficult to get through [Augustine's] continual asides praising God, it is ultimately the story of the intellectual progress of a teenager as he struggles through his early years away from home, perhaps, not unlike our students."

Listed below are the full updates to the existing CoAS Reading List. We hope the list will keep you from the experience Physics professor Dr. Leonard Finegold had while on a nine-day backpack trip in Wind-River Range, Wyoming. "I took no reading matter to save weight. As a consequence I suffered severe withdrawal symptoms and was reduced to reading my first-aid manual."

For the full list go to: http://drexel.edu/academics/coas/ask/reading-list/