By Grace Crall, Contributing Writer
If you’re anything like me, you hear “summer reading,” and you’re immediately taken back to the summer before your freshman year of high school when you realized the powers-that-be are trying to make you do homework — over summer break. What?! At first, I hated the idea of being forced to read a book I didn’t choose for myself when school wasn’t even in session.
I realize now that this is a vulnerable admission for an English major — let me just say, I’ve grown in my enthusiasm for reading since then. But no matter where you are on the scale of loving to read, you can’t discount its vital role in the pursuit of lifelong learning. Now that you’ve completed the Engaging the Liberal Arts course, Asbury probably won’t assign any more summer reading tasks. That’s why I’d encourage you to set goals for yourself when it comes to how you’re going to spend your time this summer furthering your educational objectives.
Here at Asbury, I’d say we have less of a problem with illiteracy than we have with aliteracy. Aliteracy is defined as the quality of being able to read but being uninterested in doing so — what a horribly sad word. A privileged education comes with the responsibility to steward that resource with integrity. Let’s be people who understand the value of pursuing learning even when it isn’t assigned to us for a grade. College is only temporary, and the habits we begin to form now will stay with us when we leave the cradle of our liberal arts community.
Below is a compiled list of book suggestions from the deans of each school on campus. It is important to be familiar with literature from a variety of genres and disciplines, so don’t be afraid to mix it up. You can even ask your advisor or professors for their suggestions in addition to these.
Dr. Tim Campbell: Academic Dean
- Divine Conspiracy, by Dallas Willard
- The Shallows, by Nicholas Carr
- The Shaping Forces of Music, by Ernst Toch
Dr. Steve Clements: Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
- Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Road to Character, by David Brooks
- The Confessions, by St. Augustine
- Fractured Republic, by Yuval Levin
Dr. Vins Sutlive: Dean of the School of Science, Health & Mathematics
- Awakenings, by Oliver Sacks
- –The Citadel, by A.J. Cronin.
- –Journey to the East, by Herman Hesse
Dr. Mike Kane: Dean of the Howard Dayton School of Business
- Business as Calling: Work and the Examined Life, by Michael Novak
- Business Adventures, by John Brooks.
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, by Stephen Covey
Dr. Doug Walker: Associate Dean of the School of Communication Arts
- American Prison: A Reporter’s Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment, by Shane Bauer
- Selfies: Searching for the Image of God in a Digital Age, by Craig Detwiler
- Why Should the Devil Have All the Good Music?: Larry Norman and the Perils of Christian Rock, by Gregory Thornbury
- Frederick Douglas: Prophet of Freedom, by David W. Blight
Dr. Sharon Bixler: Dean of the School of Education
- The Essential 55, by Ron Clark
- Who Moved the Cheese?, by Spencer Johnson
- The Thread That Runs So True, by Jesse Stuart
No more assigned summer reading reports — now your summer reading list is completely up to you. So Asbury, what will you read? What will you learn this summer? Intentionally make time — under a shady tree, by the pool, on a plane, on a beach towel — in the black and white pages of a good book that will grow you, stretch you and contribute to your personal development.