Since I graduated college last summer, I haven't been motivated to read much. As an English major I read the classics, excerpts, full novels, novellas, poems, and any bit of text I could get my hands on for most of the day every day. Now, I read news articles all day for work. But it's not the same. I need something that provokes thought, gives you a peek into specific time periods and is generally, well, prettier. So I've decided to revisit some of my favorite reads as I get ready to dive into them again and share them with you. You're welcome.

1. Albert Camus' "The Stranger"

"The Stranger" is interesting because it highlights existentialism and the philosophy of the absurd, but personally I like it because it's a shocking example of what was considered an American writing style: short sentences, brief descriptions. Plus, there's lost love, murder, family issues and little bit of psycho mixed in. Here's a taste:

"That was so. When we lived together, Mother was always watching me, but we hardly ever talked. During her first few weeks at the Home she used to cry a good deal. But that was only because she hadn’t settled down. After a month or two she’d have cried if she’d been told to leave the Home. Because this, too, would have been a wrench. That was why, during the last year, I seldom went to see her. Also, it would have meant losing my Sunday—not to mention the trouble of going to the bus, getting my ticket, and spending two hours on the journey each way."

2. Jonathan Smith's "Gulliver's Travels"

Not everyone likes this one, but I certainly did. It allows you to look at yourself and your society as an outsider in ways you might not have seen before. It's very satirical and often funny. Below is a sneak peek:

"But the colonel ordered six of the ringleaders to be seized, and thought no punishment so proper as to deliver them bound into my hands; which some of his soldiers accordingly did, pushing them forward with the butt-ends of their pikes into my reach. I took them all in my right hand, put five of them into my coat-pocket; and as to the sixth, I made a countenance as if I would eat him alive. The poor man squalled terribly, and the colonel and his officers were in much pain, especially when they saw me take out my penknife: but I soon put them out of fear; for, looking mildly, and immediately cutting the strings he was bound with, I set him gently on the ground, and away he ran. I treated the rest in the same manner, taking them one by one out of my pocket;"

3. Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Nature"

This one is a thick read at parts, but so, so worth it. He's one of my favorite authors of all time. Here's a quote for a quick sample of what you'd be getting into:

"Our age is retrospective. It builds the sepulchres of the fathers. It writes biographies, histories, and criticism. The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs? Embosomed for a season in nature, whose floods of life stream around and through us, and invite us by the powers they supply, to action proportioned to nature, why should we grope among the dry bones of the past, or put the living generation into masquerade out of its faded wardrobe? The sun shines to-day also. There is more wool and flax in the fields. There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our own works and laws and worship."

4. Harriet Jacobs' "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl"

Truthfully I've only read chapter 6, "The Jealous Mistress," from Jacobs' famous slave narrative. But her experiences are so bizarre and her struggles so deep that I recommend the entire text confidently. You really need this one in your life. It will remind you -- from the victim's point of view -- how house slaves were actually treated.

"I did as she ordered. As I went on with my account her color changed frequently, she wept, and sometimes groaned. She spoke in tones so sad, that I was touched by her grief. The tears came to my eyes; but I was soon convinced that her emotions arose from anger and wounded pride. She felt that her marriage vows were desecrated, her dignity insulted; but she had no compassion for the poor victim of her husband's perfidy. She pitied herself as a martyr; but she was incapable of feeling for the condition of shame and misery in which her unfortunate, helpless slave was placed."

5. Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables"

This is a loooong piece, but I could re-read it for a lifetime. There's a reason it's survived for long enough to become a classic.

"'Monsieur, forget not this: the French Revolution had its reasons. It's wrath will be pardoned by the future; its result is a better world. From its most terrible blows comes a caress from the human race. I must be brief. I must stop. I have too good a cause; and I am dying.' And, ceasing to look at the bishop, the old man completed his idea in these few tranquil words: 'Yes, the brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over, this is recognised: that the human race has been harshly treated, but that it has advanced."