I have to read 2 books that have a significance on me, for univ. apps. suggestions?

[Quad]

on my university application, for engineering, i have to describe 2 books, magazines, or journals that have had a particular significance on me. i'm not a big reader, so i have no idea what to write. i have another 1.5 months to mail this out, so does anyone have any suggestions on reading material that would suit this purpose? (keeping in mind this is for an engineering app.)

thx in advance

 

[Maetryx]

Robert Heinlein (sp?) was a science fiction writer with some education in engineering. I liked the short story "The Roads Must Roll" which was about the highway system becoming giant conveyor belts. Well, it was really about the highway maitenance workers going on strike, but it had a lot of information about the engineering aspect of giant conveyor belts.

A lot of my friends with an interest in engineering really like Popular Mechanics magazine. I have civil engineering degree, but I've lost most of my interest in engineering. I'm way more interested in money, computers, law, writing or just about anything else you can think of.

 

[Quad]

thanks i'll check him out

btw, the literature doesn't have to be about engineering.....
pretty much any book that i can BS about its significance on me

tia

 

[pamchenko]

i'll give u an analogy

catcher in the rye is to high school as the fountainhead is to college.

ayn rand wrote the fountainhead and its really worth reading.

 

[ViperMagic]

The Giver

thats one freaking weird book


short too!

 

[UglyCasanova]

I am reading Inferno right now. I am not far into it, but it seems very good. I don't know Italian though, so I am stuck with translations, but it is still good.

 

[kami]

Mine would be The Lord of the Rings and Dune. Does it have to be related to engineering?

 

[shopbruin]

they're looking for something that has had an impact on you. pretty much they look for "at the tender age of 12, i was handed a book from my father which he thought would be a good read for a saturday afternoon. after reading 2 chapters of the book, many things in my life began to make sense to me. why i was treated the way i was. why blah blah blah. this book was "blah blah blah" by "blah blah"

after reading this book i realized that life wasn't as blah blah as i made it out to be."

go into a full on description of how your life was affected.

as for actual books... hmmm if this is a us private school, go for diversity/ethnic/religious books and how you felt about it.

or a book that said "welcome to ibm... and the world of computers"

i can't think of any actual books you can use though. if you wanna be cute and kiddie, there is "the giving tree" by shel silverstein. and "the lorax" by dr seuss.

 

[Maetryx]

Well, a book that profoundly affected me would be C.S. Lewis' _The Great Divorce_. I'm also really into Alvin Plantinga's _God, Freedom, and Evil_.

As for non-theolgical books that have profoundly affected me... hmmmmmm. Well, William Gibson comes to mind. His cyberpunk trilogy, which started with _Neuromancer_, is unequaled. True litereature. William Gibson played the same role in science fiction as Nirvana did in popular music.

On sociological issues, I was probably most affected by reading _The Bell Curve_ by Charles Murray and the late Mr. Hernnstein (can't think of his first name).

 

[bleeb]

C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity" or the "Rose that Grew from Concrete" by Tupac Shakur

 

[MisterPants]

Try "Ape and Essence" by Aldous Huxley, and maybe "The Bell Jar"

 

[udonoogen]

<FONT style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #c0c0c0">Joseph Conrad's <U>The Secret Sharer</U> ... have you ever seen fight club? its like this book. twisted and cool. =) the alter ego and such. loved it. it's also only maybe 100 pages. or less if printed smaller. =)</FONT>
CS Lewis' <U>Mere Christianity</U> ... very intelligent book everyone should read. it's a relatively easy read 'cause it was adapted originally from a few radio talks he did. three books in one ... all very short, concise, to the point, and just great. =)

good luck with college apps. =)

btw ... these are privates, right? why dont you go for public? aint nothing wrong with that (like cornbread) =P

 

[bellycows]

"When I was 5, I discovered a copy of Playboy under my father's bed.

I couldn't read the words back then, but the pictures were fascinating.

That magazine changed my life in a very profound way.

Thanks to Playboy, I learned that boys have penises and girls have vaginas."

 

[Wizkid]

One of the books that I used was 1984 by George Orwell. I can't remember the other one off hand.

That was for an application to the Universifty of Waterloo, Computer Engineering. I'm typing this too you from UW, so I guess my choice of books was good LOL

 

[Krakerjak]

Have you read 1984 by George Orwell, theres lots of stuff to write about in that book.
I studied it all year in english 12

edit: GAHHH beat me!

 

[Wizkid]

Yep, sure did

It really was a great book, worth reading.