The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe – This poem serves as a landmark in literary history as the poem that gave all crows everywhere a massive inferiority complex.

The Sot Weed Factor by John Barth – John Barth was born in Baltimore, went to Hopkins undergrad, returned for grad school, became a professor, and died in Baltimore.  In other words, you will never truly escape this place.

The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy – The film adaptation of this book sparked Alec Baldwin’s meteoric rise to becoming the overweight guy on those Capitol One commercials.

Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald – His follow up to Gatsby was written while his wife was hospitalized for schizophrenia and he was grappling with alcoholism and possibly tuberculosis.  But you know what I bet helped?  The spacious common rooms and convenient personal kitchens that Wolman Hall has to offer!  Not to mention its proximity to both CharMar and Barnes & Noble!

What the Dead Know by Laura Lippman – How not to be alive amirite?

IFP Short Story 4 by Keith Wilko– IFP Short Story 4 tells the first two and a half pages of a gripping tale of love, danger, and hope that climaxes when the protagonist, secret agent Kieth Kill-ko, is captured while on a mission to dismantle the KGB only to wake up and realize that it was all a dream and he is really a Hopkins freshman who fell asleep studying for a test on the history of the Cold War.  Keith’s not a Writing Sems major, in case you couldn’t guess.

The Qur’an by Muhammad – I hear they’re making it into a movie soon.    ​