For one of my college classes, we read The Language Instinct and I found it fascinating. For the life of me, I can’t remember what class it was for or what year. The book focuses on how children develop language, and it led me to read books about children who grew up without language, like Genie.
None of the actual textbooks make much impression on me, other than the books we used for a required course called World Cultures. It covered three semesters and was a sort of history/literature/religion class. I tried finding the book we used for the class, but had no luck. We also read much of the Koran and the Bhagavad Gita as part of the course.
For one of my literature classes, probably in my junior year, we read Sexual Personae. It was also very interesting, and first introduced me to the lovely phrase “vagina dentata.” ;)
My sophomore year I took a cultural anthropology course and loved it. I can’t find the exact text we used, unfortunately. I know we also read a book about Inuit culture and one about the Masai tribe. I’d imagine you could find books about these subjects by doing an Amazon search and reading the reviews to find which book would have what you are looking for.
Finally, the books I remember most from college were novels. The literature classes I had in high school lacked so much, which I didn’t even realize until I was forced to read the likes of Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte. “Emma,” “Pride and Prejudice,” and “Jane Eyre” have been favorites of mine ever since. I’ve read each of them over and over. Also, “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood had me on a reading spree, devouring the rest of her books (some better than others!). For one of my education classes my sophomore year, I read The Education of Little Tree. I’ve read it since about once a year, and it changes each time for me. At first I loved it for what it was supposed to be, an autobiography of a Cherokee boy raised by his grandparents. Then I found out it was fiction, and later found out the author wrote racist speeches for political candidates under his real name. Even now, the book makes me cry and laugh, but knowing more about the author makes the book that much more incredible. I read it and try to understand how he could write it and also write hate speech. I am torn between still loving it, and wishing it had a bit less of the “myth of the noble savage.” Regardless, it’s a good story.
Happy reading!
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