Five books to read before starting your English Literature degree

The best reads to prepare for the single or joint honours course at ARU.

If you’ve chosen to study English Literature, you’re probably already aware there is going to be one heck of a reading list!

You're not obligated to buy any books before you start, and bear in mind you may be eligible for Books Plus, but here are my 5 suggestions to get started:

• Studying English Literature: A Practical Guide by Tory Young (Young, T., 2008. Studying English Literature: A Practical Guide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.)

This is very useful if you don’t have much academic practice, which, coming from A-Level, you probably don’t. And that’s okay! This is a great guide full of tips for essay writing, creating arguments, and even sentence structure.

• The Library Harvard Referencing Guide (Anglia Ruskin University, 2017. Guide to the Harvard System of Referencing (6th Edition)

This one isn’t strictly a book, I know. But the library has a fantastic guide to Harvard Referencing, which, if you didn’t already know, is what you will need to do in every single one of your essays. And it’s tricky to get your head around at first.

• The Poetry Toolkit by Rhian Williams (Williams, R., 2016. The Poetry Toolkit: The essential guide to studying poetry. 2nd ed. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.)

You’re probably used to analysing poetry, but not to degree level. This book has some next level terminology in it, and is pretty complex in places. But if you can learn even some of this jargon, you’re going to look like you know what you’re talking about in seminars, and more importantly, your assignments.

• The ‘Cambridge Companions’, for example, The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel, edited by Dierdre David (David, D., 2000. The Cambridge Companion to the Victorian Novel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)

I haven’t specified an exact Cambridge Companion for you to read, as there are so many. It really depends on what you find most interesting, or where you would like further information. There is one for basically every topic, and they are very useful.

• The ‘Very Short Introductions’, for example, Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction by Jonathan Culler (Culler, J., 2011. Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.)

These books are great for further knowledge. If you can’t quite get to grips with something, these give a brief overview of the basics and can be a handy reference to turn to.

Ultimately, any reading is good reading, and you can never do enough of it when you study literature!