Recommended Reading for the GRE
You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free. Ready to take the plunge? Check out our upcoming courses here.
When I was a kid, my mom read Don Quixote to me as a kind of cautionary tale: look at the crazy things you end up doing if you read too much fiction. I did read too much fiction—and I still do—and this probably does explain some of my major personality flaws. But it also turns out that one of the crazy things you can do if you read too much is answer most GRE vocabulary questions, because one great gift of reading is that you learn a lot of interesting words.
The GRE favors words that are used broadly, across many disciplines, and that are appropriate for academic writing. This means that many of the words that show up on the GRE are rarely used in our everyday conversations, and I find that a lot of them I’ve seen used primarily in 19th-century fiction.
My colleagues have written some great posts about how to learn words effectively with flashcards and other tools, and so today I want offer an alternate strategy: read great fiction, preferably older stuff, but maybe some 20th-century books as well. It’s a fun antidote to study fatigue and a great way to find new words in their natural habitat. Here’s some recommended reading for picking up lots of GRE vocab.
MIDDLEMARCH by George Elliot
Long 19th-century novels are not for everyone, but they are universally great for building vocabulary. (Tip for reading these: do it on a Kindle or other e-reader so you don’t have to lug around a heavy book). Elliot’s writing is beautiful, her characters are frustratingly flawed, and it’s a pleasure to see how their flaws (and virtues) create the trajectories of their lives.
LOLITA or PNIN by Vladimir Nabokov
Even though English was his third language, Nabokov has one of the richest vocabularies of any English-language author (he’s great inspiration for students pursuing degrees in second or third languages). Lolita is his masterpiece, and, in my mind, one of the most perfect books written in English. But the dark subject matter and complicated puzzles aren’t to everyone’s taste. If you’d like something lighter, read Pnin, Nabokov’s gentlest and funniest novel, about a bumbling Russian academic struggling with the absurdities of the American university.
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE (or any other novel) by Jane Austen
I have to admit that, even though I was an English major, I didn’t read any Austen until I was in my mid-twenties. The rom-com association put me off (I strongly dislike rom-coms). But then I finally decided I should try to read her, and I was delighted—I read novel after novel for months. She’s sharp-witted and funny, and her observations about human nature and social behavior are still shockingly accurate, even though her own milieu is so different from our own. And while there are a lot of happy endings, these books are never saccharine or sentimental.
TO THE LIGHTHOUSE by Virginia Woolf
This is tied with Lolita for my favorite book of the 20th century. It takes a little patience to get into; her stream-of-consciousness style and structure can be jarring at first. But once you do find your way into the book, it will transform how you look at the world around you. Every glance shared between two people, every momentary shift in the light has a resonance in Woolf’s novel. Each time I read it, I’m surprised again by the immense scope of the material it tackles, balanced against its close attention to the minute particulars of human lives.
THE HOUSE OF MIRTH by Edith Wharton
If you have any interest in Gilded Age New York, Wharton’s work has wonderful descriptions of this world and what people wore in it. If this doesn’t appeal to you, then read it for her precise, glowing sentences, witty observations of human social interactions, and tragic characters.
Whatever you choose to read, keep a stack of flashcards at hand to note down any new words. You’ll find great, GRE-appropriate words in all of these. Enjoy! ?
Want more guidance from our GRE gurus? You can attend the first session of any of our online or in-person GRE courses absolutely free! We’re not kidding. Check out our upcoming courses here.
Cat Powell
is a Manhattan Prep instructor based in New York, NY. She spent her undergraduate years at Harvard studying music and English and is now pursuing an MFA in fiction writing at Columbia University. Her affinity for standardized tests led her to a 169Q/170V score on the GRE. Check out Cat’s upcoming GRE courses here.