Touchstone Texts

This is a list of touchstone texts compiled by Vanderbilt graduate students.


In no particular order:
The Breakfast Club (film)
Edgar Allen Poe (print)
Winne the Pooh by Milne (print)
The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway (print)
Glass Houses by Billy Joel (song)
Destroyer by Kiss (song)
The Tudors (TV)
Interview with a Vampire by Rice (print)
The Amazing Spiderman
Pandora (songs)
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Eggers (print)
Dead Poet's Society (film)
Fight Club (film)
The Color Purple by Walker (print)
Slow Dancing in a Burning Room by Mayer (song)
Starry Night by Van Gogh (painting)
The Daily Beast (news website)
MacGyver (TV)
Growing Pains (TV)
Babysitters Club Series by Martin (print)
Legends of the Hidden Temple (TV series)
Romantic of Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong (Chinese novel)
Outlaws in the Marsh by Shi Nai' An (Chinese novel)
Journey to the West by Wu Cheng'en (Chinese novel)
Friends (TV)
Beloved by Toni Morrison (print)
Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card (print) 
The West Wing (TV)
The Westing Game (print)
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (print)
Hope was Here by Joan Bauer (print)
Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Gilmore Girls (TV)
Princess Diaries (film series)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (print)
Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Twain (print)
The Story of the Red Chamber (also known as The Story of Stone) by Cao Xueqin (Chinese novel)
Beauty and the Beast (film)
The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
The Shadow (film)
Anything by William Faulkner
The Bible
fictions by Jorge Luis Borges (short story collection)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë (print)
Gone with the Wind (film)
A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (play)
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (print)

Text defined...

from ENED 3400...


- anything that communicates an intended message using codification.
- anything that relays information that can be decoded and communicated
- anything absorbed or consumed, anything that has an impact on you, anything from a   book to media, anything visual or auditory, anything that has (literal) meaning
- BIGGER than print, usually involves narrative and conveys an impression, anything created for an audience to consume, an individual experience, something "tried on"
- symbols and meanings


Examples: sign language, written language, hieroglyphics, acronyms, pictographs, Bayeaux Tapestry, graffiti, street signs, cave pairings, emoticons, Braille, music, TV, books, camera, phones, ereader, recipes, pill bottles, poetry/spoken word, radio, signs, tweets

January Reads

Need by Carrie Jones ebook on iPad (fantasy)****

 Entice by Carrie Jones ebook on iPad (fantasy)****

 Heist Society by Ally Carter (audiobook) realistic fiction ****

 If you didn't bring jerky, then what did I just eat by Bill Heavey (paperback) collection of essays*****

USA from a Chevrolet: Scenes from a 40 year drive in '65 Biscayne by James A Ward (paperback) memoir***

The Body Finder by Kimberly Derting (ebook on iPad) realistic fiction ****

Kill You Last  by Todd Strasser (hardback) realistic fiction ***

Brutal by Michael Harmon (ebook on iPad) fiction****

** An OK book

*** A good book

**** A great book if you like _____________

***** An Awesome book that everyone should read