Books to Read Over J-Term

J-Term will officially begin on Jan. 4, but we at FlyBy know better than anyone that it will be difficult to make the coming three weeks into anything other than a colossal waste of time. So, in the spirit of genuine or—who are we kidding?—feigned intellectualism, we've compiled a list of reading recommendations from several campus mailing lists. We've also provided, of course, the requisite value judgment on each title.

Some of these books are ones you've probably heard of before, others are ones you haven't. But since none of them are assigned in any classes you’re currently taking, all are sure to qualify as reading you might actually do.

Because we know both how good it feels to actually finish a book and how rarely that actually happens at Harvard, the titles are arranged roughly from shortest to longest. (Thanks to the members of the Eliot, Mather, Pfoho, and FUP mailing lists for providing the recommendations.)

Now, without further ado, the list:

Best way to remember what life was like before Expos

Curious George and Me

Author: H.A. Rey

Page Count: 56

Pitch: Aww, you don't need us to explain this one.

Best short classic

Mrs. Dalloway

Author: Virginia Woolf

Page Count: 216

Pitch: Taking place in a single day, this novel follows a London society woman (Mrs. Dalloway) as she prepares for a party that she is to give that night.

Best way to be an eighth grade nerd all over again

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Author: Douglas Adams

Page Count: 224

Pitch: A classic, funny, science fiction novel you just have to read at some point.

Best (pretty short) philosophical novel

Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit

Author: Daniel Quinn

Page Count: 263

Pitch: A Socratic dialogue between a man and a gorilla named Ishmael who attempts to debunk the “myth” of human supremacy.

Best collection of bizarre short stories

Salmonella Men on Planet Porno: Stories

Author: Yatsutaka Tsutsui

Page Count: 272

Pitch: The title says it all.

Best book-that-was-so-much-better-than-the-movie

The Road

Author: Cormac McCarthy

Page Count: 304

Pitch: An apocalyptic journey of a man and his son.

Best book for learning how to…well, you know

The Kama Sutra

Author: Philosopher/scholar Mallanga Vatsyayana, aka some Indian dude of antiquity

Page Count: 320

Pitch: An illustrated guide to every sex position under the sun.

Best book to make you seem like a post-modern intellectual

The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Author: Milan Kundera

Page Count: 320

Pitch: A philosophical novel of Prague during the tumultuous year of 1968.

Best book to make you seem culturally aware

The God of Small Things

Author: Arundhati Roy

Page Count: 336

Pitch: A controversial Booker Prize winner about two brothers siblings, India, and circumstance.

Best forgotten classic

The Master and Margarita

Author: Mikhail Bulgakov

Page Count: 350

Pitch: A novel about the Devil visiting the atheistic USSR.

Best book by a Cambridge local

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Author: Junot Diaz

Page Count: 352

Pitch: A poignant and funny novel about an overweight Dominican boy in New Jersey.

Best pretentious book by an author absolutely no one has heard of

Dictionary of the Khazars

Author: Milorad Pavic

Page Count: 352

Pitch: This novel, written in dictionary form, doesn’t have a conventional plot or structure, although it’s loosely based on the mass conversion of the Khazar people to Judaism in the 8th or 9th century. According to the author, there’s also an allegorical connection with Serbia...

Best contemporary classic

Atonement

Author: Ian McEwan

Page Count: 368

Pitch: A beautiful novel about a girl, the devastating consequences of a lie she tells, and her attempts to atone for it later in life.

Best beach read

How To Be Single

Author: Liz Tuccillo

Page Count: 368

Pitch: A spunky novel that follows the love lives of five New York women.

Best selection from Oprah’s Book Club (even though it's now kind of a joke)

The House of Sand and Fog

Author: Andre Dubus III

Page Count: 365

Pitch: A darker novel about the conflict between an unstable woman trying to get her house back and the Iranian family that now lives in it.

Best book about food

The Omnivore’s Dilemma

Author: Michael Pollan

Page Count: 464 pages

Pitch: A seasoned journalist’s quest to uncover the origins of the foods Americans eat everyday.

Best book that spawned an international controversy and several deaths

The Satanic Verses

Author: Salman Rushdie

Page Count: 576

Pitch: Inspired in part by the life of the Prophet Muhammad, this contemporary novel angered segments of the Muslim community so much that the Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa against its author in 1989. Despite all the threats, however, Rushdie has spoken at Harvard before.

Best big, engrossing page-turner

The Poisonwood Bible

Author: Barbara Kingsolver

Page Count: 576

Pitch: A powerful novel about a missionary family who moves to Belgian Congo in 1959.

Best long novel on the list that’s more than worth the time it takes to read

A Prayer for Owen Meany

Author: John Irving

Page Count:  672

Pitch: This novel tells the story of Owen Meany, an unforgettable character who believes himself to be an instrument of God.