{"id":2949,"date":"2016-04-17T14:44:50","date_gmt":"2016-04-17T13:44:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/?p=2949"},"modified":"2016-04-17T14:46:01","modified_gmt":"2016-04-17T13:46:01","slug":"icymi-no-4-books-to-read-before-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/2016\/04\/17\/icymi-no-4-books-to-read-before-university\/","title":{"rendered":"ICYMI No. 4: Books to read before university"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week\u2019s <em>Times Higher Education<\/em> has a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeshighereducation.com\/features\/books-to-read-before-university\">nice cover feature<\/a> listing books recommended by various scholars to students preparing for university. More particularly, as the author of the piece, Matthew Reisz, explained to me in an email, \u201cWe are asking some leading academics to recommend a single book which they believe those towards the end of their high school career should read in order to ease their transition into university life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" style=\"margin-left: auto;margin-right: auto\" src=\"https:\/\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1499\/25854818774_b2285d1919.jpg\" alt=\"Review of Matthew Cobb's book\" width=\"373\" height=\"500\" border=\"0\" \/><em>Recommended book. (Photo <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/matthewcobb\/status\/720520770594684930\">posted on Twitter<\/a> by Matthew Cobb)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not sure what definition of \u201cleading academic\u201d he was working to but my recommendation, made very much with life science students in mind (though it has broader appeal), was Matthew Cobb\u2019s <em>Life\u2019s Greatest Secret<\/em>, published in 2015.<em>\u00a0<\/em>I had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/science\/occams-corner\/2015\/jul\/25\/vital-question-lifes-greatest-secret-reviewed\">reviewed the book at length<\/a> in the <em>Guardian<\/em> last year but a short summary of my reasons for choosing it is given in the picture above.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeshighereducation.com\/features\/books-to-read-before-university\">whole list<\/a> is as interesting and varied at the scholars doing the choosing. There were a few titles that have long been on my to-read list \u2013 Maxwell\u2019s <em>On Poetry<\/em>\u00a0and Tartt\u2019s <em>The Secret History<\/em>\u00a0to name but two.<\/p>\n<p>The piece is rounded off with a commentary by headteacher Geoff Barton who presumably knows a thing or two about the bookish interests of 18 year olds these days. He is highly skeptical of Tim Gowers\u2019 choice of Wittgenstein\u2019s <em>Philosophical Investigations<\/em> (a title I suspect I may never tackle) but then undoes himself somewhat by recommending \u201canything by Malcolm Gladwell\u201d, whose popular approach \u2013 or should that be populist \u2013 been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cjr.org\/the_observatory\/the_gladwellian_debate.php\">widely criticised<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But perhaps we scholar\u2019s shouldn\u2019t be so picky. As I said to Reisz in the course of our interview, I was always glad to see students reading <em>any<\/em> kind of book in these internet-infested times. Even the flaws make for a good starting point for the next phase of the conversation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This week\u2019s Times Higher Education has a nice cover feature listing books recommended by various scholars to students preparing for university. More particularly, as the author of the piece, Matthew Reisz, explained to me in an email, \u201cWe are asking &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/2016\/04\/17\/icymi-no-4-books-to-read-before-university\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[201,333],"tags":[334],"class_list":["post-2949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-review","category-icymi","tag-icymi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/scurry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}