Common Read
2025 Common Read
The Thomas College Common Read is our invitation to join our academic community of individuals who share and explore ideas with each other.
Ross Gay is an American poet and author. He has received the PEN American Literary Jean Stein Award, the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award, and the 2016 Tufts Poetry Award. The Book of Delights was a 2019 New York Times bestseller.
He describes himself as someone who “is interested in joy… wants to understand joy… is curious about joy… studies joy. Something like that.”
In The Book of Delights, Gay pauses to identify a source of delight in his daily experiences. The genuineness in his reflections highlight the value in exploring what may be regarded as mundane.
Common Read Instructions
Ross Gay’s book is available through the Thomas College bookstore, local libraries, or wherever you get your print or audio books.
After reading and reflecting on this year’s selection, The Book of Delights by Ross Gay, create a written or video response to one of the options listed in the assignment. During Fall Orientation, you will have an opportunity to discuss what you have produced along with other students in your class.
Your written or video response is due in your Onboarding Checklist site in Canvas by Friday, August 1.
Previous Common Reads
- “Starlings in Winter,” Mary Oliver
- “The Hill We Climb,” Amanda Gorman
- “Still We Rise” and “On the Pulse of Morning,” Maya Angelou
- We Should All Be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
- A Hope in the Unseen, Ron Suskind
- I Am Malala, Malala Yousafzai
- Dear Marcus, Jerry McGill
- An Invisible Thread, Laura Schroff and Alex Tresniowski
- The Other Wes Moore, Wes Moore
- Tuesdays with Morrie, Mitch Albom
- The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
- The Pact, Sampson Davis, George Jenkins, and Rameck Hunt
- The Last Lecture, Jeffrey Zaslow and Randy Pausch
- Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
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