🐯 Princeton First Year Seminars unofficial reading list 2026

Exploring the Graphic Novel FRS 111 (fa26)

Rise & Fall: Geodesy & the History of Roman Floods FRS 113 (fa26)

How to Write About Art FRS 119 (fa26)

The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art & in Modern Oblivion by Leo Steinberg
The Sight of Death: An Experiment in Art Writing by T.J. Clark

What Makes for a Meaningful Life? A Search FRS 121 (fa26)

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology & Less from Each Other by Sherry Turkle
The Nature Principle: Reconnecting with Life in a Virtual Age by Richard Louv
✔️ Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
30 Lessons for Living: Tried & True Advice from the Wisest Americans by Karl Pillemer
The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus
✔️ Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl (my highlights)
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dogs Never Lie About Love: Reflections on the Emotional World of Dogs by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey

Sizing Up The Universe FRS 131 (fa26)

Once More, With Feeling: American Musical Theater FRS 132 (fa26)

My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner
Company by Sondheim & Furth
Oklahoma! by Rodgers & Hammerstein
South Pacific: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical by Rodgers & Hammerstein
Romeo & Juliet & West Side Story by William Shakespeare
Assassins by Stephen Sondheim
In the Heights: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical by Quiara Alegria Hudes
Fun Home by Tesori et al.
A Strange Loop by Michael R. Jackson

History of Freedom FRS 137 (fa26)

The Penguin Book of Modern Speeches by Brian MacArthur
Essays on Sex Equality by Mill & Mill
On Liberty by Mill & Mill
The Federalist Papers by Hamilton et al.
Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
✔️ Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr.
The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
Of the Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
Paradise Regained, Samson Agonistes & the Complete Shorter Poems by John Milton
Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare
The Age of Caesar: Five Roman Lives by Plutarch
The Early History of Rome (Books I-V) by Livy
Liberty: Incorporating Four Essays on Liberty by Isaiah Berlin
Political Writings by Benjamin Constant

Representation in Documentary Filmmaking FRS 138 (fa26)

Is Politics a Performance? FRS 143 (fa26)

How People Change: Short Stories & Life’s Transitions FRS 147 (fa26)

Ethics in Finance FRS 149 (fa26)

Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What’s Right & What to Do about It by Bazerman & Tenbrunsel
What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael J. Sandel
Finance & the Good Society by Robert J. Shiller
Seeking Virtue in Finance: Contributing to Society in a Conflicted Industry by J.C. de Swaan

Gaslight! Control, Coercion, or Just Conflict?: The Cultural History of a TikTok Term FRS 153 (fa26)

The Crucible by Arthur Miller
The Age of McCarthyism: A Brief History with Documents by Schrecker & Deery
For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts’ Advice to Women by Ehrenreich & English
1984 by George Orwell
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Passing by Nella Larsen
John Proctor is the Villain by Kimberly Belflower
The Birds & Other Stories by Daphne Du Maurier

Marx in the 21st Century FRS 167 (fa26)

Capital, v.1 by Karl Marx
Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072 O’Brien & Abdelhadi
Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto by Kohei Saito
Caliban & the Witch: Women, the Body & Primitive Accumulation by Silvia Federici
Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis
✔️ The Communist Manifesto by Marx & Engels
24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep by Jonathan Crary

Rembrandt FRS 168 (fa26)

Neurons & Narratives: Genes & Disease in the Nervous System FRS 171 (fa26)

Sheila: Unlocking the Treatment for PKU by Anne Green
Inside the O’Briens by Lisa Genova
My Life, My Science: Pursuing a Cure for Huntington’s Disease by Nancy Sabin Wexler
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Still Alice by Lisa Genova
Laughing at My Nightmare by Shane Burcaw
The Child Who Never Grew by Pearl S. Buck
Human Genetics: Concepts and Applications by Ricki Lewis
The Disordered Mind: What Unusual Brains Tell Us About Ourselves by Eric R. Kandel
Understanding the Brain: From Cells to Behavior to Cognition by John E. Dowling

America 250: Natural Law & American Constitutional Democracy FRS 175 (fa26)

The Common Good of Constitutional Democracy: Essays in Political Philosophy & on Catholic Social Teaching by Martin Rhonheimer
Natural Law & Natural Rights by John Finnis

Love Songs FRS 181 (fa26)

Medicine on Screen FRS 185 (fa26)

American & Russian Science Fiction: Story-Worlds in Dialogue FRS 189 (fa26)