Good novels about college?

In a year and a half, I'll be off to college, so naturally, I want to read about it. But I don't know where to start to look for contemporary, or perhaps slightly older novels that deal with young people and college experience. I've tried Brideshead Revisited and A Separate Peace (which are both about young men in advanced learning institutions), but it's not quite what I'm looking for.

 

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what do you need to know, go to uni, get a degree, and use every drug available along the way

 

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Er ....

Well, Brett Easton Ellis' Rules of Attraction will send you to college with either a queasy stomach or an erection.

Salinger's Franny and Zooey relates to the collegiate experience, peripherally, at least. They're more about the characters and ideas than about college.

Tough question, though. Most college-related fiction I know of is in cinematic form, and usually a hyperspeed comedy.

If you happen to find a copy of a book by Ed Wyatt and Bill Jeakle called How To College In the '90s, snag it. (If you ever find a copy, this obscure 1998 mention of the book will seem especially hilarious.)

 

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Hearts In Atlantis?...or not.

You'd better stick to those "hyperspeed comedic romps" that you can always find in the cinema. Without fail. Ever. Guaranteed.

 

I'd go with college movies realy, not books! 'Heathers'!

Maybe theres a novel of 'the Butterfly Efect'...

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I am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe is interesting. Of course it's about a girl who gets deflowered. And it won the bad sex award, but hey, President Bush likes it.

 

http://www.erowid.org/psychoactives/psychoactives.shtml

Books, you say? Bah, learn to chug three beer in thirty minutes.

 

read 'Snapshots from Hell' by Peter Robinson...its about the making of an MBA...

 

I once chugged 10 beers in 30 minutes. I ended up paying for everyones food that night, too.

 

Sucker, you should have guilt-tripped them into paying for your food.

"The Paper Trail" by Somebody or Other is a good book about law school...

 

It was my mistake. I told my friend that I would pay for her food because she helped me cheat at cards. Bad idea. Women cannot be trusted, ever.

 

"The secret history", by donna tartt, was pretty good.
I would get it from the library though, and not spend money on it.

Watch "dead poet's society", I think that movie is pretty good too.

Also, Hesse's "beneath the wheel", is short and interesting, but depressing. Read this for sure, so you keep in mind that your sanity is #1, not your studies. Actually everything I have read by Hesse is good for reminding you to hold on to your sanity. Except "siddhartha" which is just nice, mentally expansive and open.

Edit - "beneath the wheel" is from 1902, but worth reading for the moral lesson. (that is probably the best way to get you not to read it, but, whatever)

 

pfft, my record is 37 in an hour

 

HOW DID YOU STAY AWAKE? Ive seen people pass out on less than 10 beers - or did you keep puking it up befor drinking more ?

 

If you want a quick introduction to psychedelic drugs before going to college I can recomend 4-HO-DIPT or 4-aco-DIPT. A short but intense trip for 2 hours, you'll be baseline by 3. Magic.

The above link to erowid obtains.

 

You'd die. Your stomach lining would split open. Unless you're 350 lbs.

 

Are we talking about proper pints or just little plastic things?

I had once only 2 bottles of beer within 30 minutes and was getting quite drunk already. Mind you they were 1 liter bottles.

 

Read Angels and Demons or The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown. Everyone at your college would have read that book and nothing else. They will continually comment on it every time you pull out your copy of Eating Mammals by John Barlow.

They'll explain how they love to read and go on and on about Dan Brown and all of his great books. Then ask them "Have you heard of [insert author's name]?" Well, no, they haven't. But they know that the Catholic Church is hiding something mysterious from everyone.

I'm pissed. Everyone loves to read but the only thing they’ve read is Stephen King or Dan Brown. Fucking posers.

 

I heard Dan Brown also wrote the bible.

It is kind of alarming to see him depicted as a great writer by almost everybody you meet nowadays . As if anyone will remember him in 50 years.

 

That's why you should read books like "Might is Right" by Ragnar Redbeard.