π» Cornell Comparative Literature unofficial reading list, fall 2026
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Freshman level
Robots COML 1106-103
- Severance by Ling Ma
- The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
- Exhalation by Ted Chiang
Elementary Russian through Film RUSSA 1121 / Self-Paced Elementary Russian I RUSSA 1131
- What I Saw by Boris Zhitkov
- Beginning Russian by Leed et al.
- 5000 Russian Words: With All Their Inflected Forms and Other Grammatical Information by Leed & Paperno
Sophomore level
Intermediate Composition & Conversation RUSSA 2203
- Intermediate Russian: The Twelve Chairs by Paperno et al.
Demons & Witches in Russian Literature & Film RUSSL 2500
- Alexander Pushkin: The Queen of Spades & Other Stories
- The Collected Tales of Nikolai Gogol
- The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
- The Landlady by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Junior level
Remembering Socialism: Literature & Film After the End of History COML 3012
- Free: A Child & a Country at the End of History by Lea Ypi
- Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin
- The Girl from the Metropol Hotel: Growing Up in Communist Russia by Ludmilla Petrushevskay
- Red Plenty by Francis Spufford
- The Ministry of Pain by Dubravka Ugresic
Short Russian Fiction: 19th Century RUSSL 3341
- A Hero Of Our Time by Mikhail Lermontov
- Anton Chekhovβs Selected Stories
- Novels, Tales, Journeys: The Complete Prose of Alexander Pushkin
- Tolstoy: The Death of Ivan Ilyich & Other Stories
- Nikolai Gogol: The Nose & Other Stories
- The Eternal Husband by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Minorities of the Middle East COML 3743
- The Baghdad Eucharist by Sinan Antoon
- The Weight of Paradise by Iman Humaydan