The theme is hokey, but I like the idea of a summer reading list for incoming freshman to my neighbor, University of California Berkeley. Apparently they’ve been doing these reading lists — suggested, but certainly not required — for a couple of decades.

This year’s list has a supposed organizing theme of reading for future presidents, since, allegedly, Berkeley students will go on to be leaders in whatever field they choose. Could be true, I guess. Some of the list is very Berkeley: hey look, Noam Chomsky. I’m disappointed that they’ve picked Tom Friedman’s The World Is Flat, rather than a more complete and challenging book on globalization and the rise of Asia.

But other titles are nice surprises. I thoroughly applaud How to Lie With Statistics, a classic from the ’50s, and Antigone, a classic from the 440s BCE. Laurie Garrett’s Coming Plague is fantastic: one of the most gripping and worrying reads of the last decade for me. Some of the other books will certainly make it onto my list for future reads.

I do think, however, that it’s rather feeble that Richard Black, associate vice-chancellor for admissions, “makes it a point” to read one book from the list each summer. Surely he can do better than that?