The Liberal Arts Reading Program, (LARP), was a component of General Education Program at Dana College.  In a given semester, the academic community read and discussed a selection of books. Discussion groups consist of twelve to fifteen students and a faculty member who facilitates discussion.

LARP was born from the realization that many sincere, industrious students receive the Baccalaureate and even the Doctoral degree without having read more than a few of the best books of the past and the present. It recognizes that few of the standard college courses present the student with the problem of reading, interpreting, and discussing books without guidance. The objectives of LARP are to familiarize participants with classic and contemporary writing, to inspire cross-disciplinary thought and investigation, and to produce a higher level of campus conversations.

2006-2007  Spring
Inside the Kingdom: My Life in Saudi Arabia by Carmen Bin Ladin
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr

2006-2007  Fall
Bee Season: A novel by Myla Goldberg
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Drinking: A Love Story by Caroline Knapp

2005–2006 Spring
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquival
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich

2005–2006 Fall
The Radioactive Boy Scout by Ken Silverstein
The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo (abridged)
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

Spring 2004-2005
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, Eric Schlosser
The Lathe of Heaven, Ursula Le Guin
Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie

Fall 2004-2005
Ender's Game, Orson Scott Card
To Dance with the White Dog, Terry Kay
The Hiding Place, Corrie Ten Boom

Spring 2003-2004
Reason for Hope, Jane Goodall
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
O Pioneers!, Willa Cather

Fall 2003-2004
Women of the Silk, Gail Tsukiyama
Botany of Desire, Michael Pollans
A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest Gaines

2002-2003  “Create your own theme"
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Stephen King 
Beowulf , in new translation by Seamus Heaney
Beyond the Sky and the Earth: A Journey to Bhutan, Jamie Zeppa
Rosa Parks, Douglas Brinkley
The Color of Water, James McBride
Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, Geraldine Brooks

2001-2002 Fall Theme: “The Culture of Families”
This Boy's Life, Tobias Wolfe
A Thousand Acres, Jane Smiley
Waterlily, Ella Cara Deloria

2001-2002 Spring Theme: "Mentoring"
Hunger of Memory, Richard Rodriguez
Babe: The Life & Legend of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Susan E. Cayleff 
Tales of a Shaman’s Apprentice, Mark J. Plotkin

2000-2001  Fall Theme: "Dreams" 
Man and His Symbols, Carl Jung 
Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neil Hurston 
Shoeless Joe, W.P. Kinsella 
Great Expectations, Charles Dickens

2000-2001 Spring Theme: "Prison and Revenge" 
The Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner, Alan Sillitoe 
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky 
Macbeth, William Shakespeare 
Kindred, Octavia Butler

1999-2000  Fall Theme: "Journeys" 
The Odyssey, Homer 
The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, James Weldon Johnson 
The Immense Journey, Loren Eisley 
Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer

1999-2000   Spring Theme: "Utopia/Distopia" 
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley 
Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift 
Dispossessed, Ursula LeGuin 
Ancient Futures, Helena Norberg-Hodge

1998-1999 Fall Theme: "The American Experience" 
The Autobiography of Ben Franklin 
Custer Died for Your Sins, Vine Deloria Jr. 
Beloved, Toni Morrison 
The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien

1998-1999  Spring Theme: "Spiritual Seeking" 
Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis 
Epic of Gilgamesh 
Howl, Alan Ginsberg 
Siddhartha, Hermann Hesse 
A River Sutra, Gita Mehta

1997-1998  Fall 
Animal Dreams, Kingsolver 
So Long a Letter, Ba 
Three Men in a Boat, Jerome 
Candide, Voltaire 
Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, Norris

1997-1998   Spring Theme: "Banned Books" 
Farenheit 451, Bradbury 
Lysistrata, Aristophanes 
Catcher in the Rye, Salinger 
"The Miller's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer 
The Awakening, Chopin

1996-1997 Fall Theme: "Systems" 
The Immigrant Experience: The Long Long Journey, opening presentation film 
The Jungle, Sinclair 
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou 
The Broken Cord, Dorris 
The Prince, Machiavelli

1996-1997  Spring Theme: "The Quest for Truth" 
Black Elk Speaks, Neihardt 
Heart of Darkness, Conrad 
The Last Days of Socrates, Plato 
The Harp of Burma, Takeyama

1995-1996 Fall Theme: "The Legacy of 1945" 
"The Legacy of 1945," Opening presentation by Dr. Niel Johnson 
The Diary of a Young Girl, Frank 
Hiroshima, Hersey 
Under a Cruel Star, Kovaly

1995-1996  Spring Theme: "Nature" 
Song of the North Wind, Johnsgard 
The Double Helix, Watson 
Silent Spring, Carson 
An Enemy of the People, Ibsen 
Walden, Thoreau

1994-1995 Fall Theme: "Love Relationships" 
The Color Purple, Walker 
The Piano (film) 
The Doll House, Ibsen 
The Sorrows of Young Werther, Goethe

1994-1995   Spring Theme: "Spiritual Journeys" 
Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya 
Luther, Osborne 
Mutant Message Downunder, Morgan 
The Tempest (text and Dana performance), Shakespeare

1993-1994  Fall Theme: "Family Ties" 
Stone Angel, Laurence 
The Dark Child, Laye 
Pelle the Conqueror (film) 
Iphigenia (film)

1993-1994  Spring Theme: "Challenging Authority" 
Gandhi (film) 
1984, Orwell 
Letter from Birmingham Jail, King 
Antigone, Anouilh 
"On Civil Disobedience," Thoreau

1992-1993  Fall Theme: "Journeys of Discovery" 
Giants in the Earth, Rolvaag 
Gorillas in the Mist (film) 
Iron and Silk (film) 
The Mission (film) 
"Voices from the New Land," presentation by Dr. John Mark and Dawn Nielsen 
The Omaha Tribe (short film)

1992-1993
Spring Theme: "Challenging Childhood" 
Savage Inequalities, Kozol 
Europa, Europa (film) 
Mischling Second Degree, Koehn 
Shame (film)

1991-1992
Nectar in a Sieve, Markandaya 
The Broken Cord, Dorris 
Hard Times, Dickens 
The Yellow Wind, Grossman 
A Thief of Time, Hillerman 
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Jacobs 
The Crucible, Miller

1990-1991
The Sound of Waves, Mishima 
Anna Karenina, Tolstoy 
Uncle Tom's Cabin, Stowe 
Love Medicine, Eldrich 
Take All to Nebraska, Winther

1989-1990
A Bird in the House, Laurence 
Under the Eye of the Clock, Nolan 
Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck 
Man's Search for Meaning, Frankl 
Obasan, Kogawa 
Iron and Silk, Salzman

1988-1989
The Plague, Camus 
Household Stories, Brothers Grimm 
A Death in the Family, Agee 
Train to Pakistan, Singh 
Betsy Brown, Shange 
The Dark Child, Laye

1987-1988
The American Constitution 
Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, Douglass 
The Visit, Dirrenmatt 
The Handmaid's Tale, Atwood 
Fathers and Sons, Turgenev 
The Doll House, Ibsen 
The Stone Angel, Laurence 
The Woman Warrior, Kingston

1986-1987
Ramona, Jackson 
Death Comes for the Archbishop, Cather 
Bless Me, Ultima, Anaya 
On the Beach, Shute 
Hiroshima, Hersey 
The Fate of the Earth, Schell

1985-1986
Pride and Prejudice, Austin 
Crucibles: The Story of Chemistry 
Go Tell It on the Mountain, Baldwin 
The Dispossessed, LeGuin 
Pericles of Tyre, Shakespeare 
Main Traveled Roads, Garland 
Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton

1984-1985
Giants in the Earth, Rolvaag 
Death of a Salesman, Miller 
Elmer Gantry, Lewis T 
The Pearl, Steinbeck 
The Red Pony, Steinbeck 
Sand County Almanac, Leopold 
Native Son, Wright 
The Good Earth, Buck

1983-1984
Luther, Osborne 
Christian Liberty, Luther 
The Conference of the Birds, Attar 
Out of Africa, Dinesen 
Five Stories, Cather 
Johnny Got His Gun, Trumbo 
The Prince, Machiavelli 
1984, Orwell

1982-1983
All the Strange Hours, Eiseley 
The Little Flowers of St. Francis 
The Power and the Glory, Greene 
Narcissus and Goldmund, Hesse 
Man's Search for Meaning, Frankel 
Growth of the Soil, Hamsun 
Winesburg, Ohio, Anderson 
Shingling the Fog, Welsch

1981-1982
The Way of All Flesh, Butler 
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Fitzgerald 
Things Fall Apart, Achebe 
The Women's Room, French 
Njal's Saga Spoon River Anthology, Masters 
Lord Grizzly, Manfred 
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou

1980-1981
Honest to God, Robinson 
Kon Tiki, Heyerdahl 
Light in August, Faulkner 
Pygmalion and My Fair Lady, Shaw & Lerner 
Declaration of Independence, Jefferson 
Communist Manifesto, Marx & Engels 
The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald 
The Father, Miss Julie, Easter, Strindberg 
Meditations, Aurelius 
Bread and Wine, Silone

1979-1980
Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut 
Common Sense, Paine 
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain 
The Two Cultures and a Second Look, Snow 
The Doll House, Ibsen 
The World in the Attic, Morris 
Oration on the Dignity of Man, Pico 
Nectar in a Sieve, Markandaya 
The Cossacks and the Raid, Tolstoy 
Black Out Loud, Adolf

1978-1979
Out of My Life and Thought, Schweitzer 
The Symposium, Plato 
Eugenie Grandet, Balzac 
Othello, Shakespeare 
Who Should Play God?, Howard & Rifkin 
Three Men in a Boat, Jerome 
Cyrano de Bergerac, Rostand 
Grendel, Gardner 
Utopia, More 
Stories, O. Henry

1977-1978
Flatland, Abbott 
The Birds, Vesaas 
The Good Earth, Buck 
Old Jules, Sandoz 
The Virginian, Wister 
Antigone, Sophocles 
The Great Divorce, Lewis 
Frankenstein, Shelley 
The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway

1976-1977
Brave New World, Huxley 
The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne 
A Precocious Autobiography, Yevtushenko 
The Bell Jar, Plath 
Cry, the Beloved Country, Paton 
On Liberty, Mill 
The Sound of Waves, Mishima 
The Night of the Iguana, Williams 
Evangeline, Longfellow

1975-1976
Rendezvous with Rama, Clark 
The Sufferings of Young Werther, Goethe 
All the President's Men, Bernstein and Woodward 
"Self-Reliance," "Compensation," Emerson 
Autobiography of Ben Franklin 
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Brown 
Take All to Nebraska, Winther

1974-1975
Tortilla Flat, Steinbeck 
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, Solzhenitsyn 
Gulliver's Travels, Swift 
The Emperor Jones; The Hairy Ape, O'Neill 
The Immense Journey, Eiseley 
Enoch Arden, Tennyson 
Gareth and Lynette (from Idylls of the King), Tennyson 
Madame Bovary, Flaubert 
The Birds, Aristophones 
The Brothers Menaechmus, Plautus

1973-1974
O Pioneers!, Cather 
Cat and Mouse, Grass 
Uncle Vanya, Chekhov 
Lord Jim, Conrad 
The Hobbit, Tolkien 
A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway 
The Imaginary Invalid, Moliere 
Chariots of the Gods, von Daniken

1972-1973
Christopher Columbus, Mariner, Morison 
Fires on the Plain, Ooka 
Walden Two, Skinner 
Medea, Euripedes 
Medea, Anouilh 
The Wingless Victory, Anderson 
The Feminine Mystique, Friedan 
Demian, Hesse

1971-1972
Silent Spring, Carson 
Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings, Kelly 
The Fox, Lawrence 
Far from the Madding Crowd, Hardy 
Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung 
The Jungle, Sinclair

1970-1971
1984, Orwell 
Giants in the Earth, Rolvaag 
The Stranger, Camus 
The Fixer, Malamud 
The Agony and the Ecstasy, Stone 
The Population Bomb, Ehrlich

1969-1970
The Prince, Machiavelli 
Rhinoceros, Ionesco 
Christian Morals Today, Robinson 
The Turn of the Screw, James 
Lysistrata, Aristophanes 
Science and Survival, Commoner 
Barabbas, Lagerkvist 
The Souls of Black Folk, DuBois

1968-1969
The Way of Zen, Watts 
The Cherry Orchard, Chekhov 
The Invisible Man, Ellison 
Scientific American offprints: "The Present Evolution of Man" and "The Genetic Basis of Evolution," Dobzhansky; "Charles Darwin," Eiseley; "The Origin of Life," Wald; "Could Life Originate Now?" Fox & McCauley 
The Underdogs, Azuela 
Shakuntala, Kalidasa

1967-1968
Black Elk Speaks, Neihardt 
Christian Liberty, Luther 
Luther's Progress to the Diet of Worms, Rupp 
The Mayor of Casterbridge, Hardy 
Brand, Ibsen 
Germinal, Zola 
Siddhartha, Hesse

1966-1967
The Immense Journey, Eiseley 
Walden, Thoreau 
Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus 
On Population: Three Essays, Malthus, Huxley, Osborn 
Giants in the Earth, Rolvaag 
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, Fitzgerald

1965-1966
The True Believer, Hoffer 
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin 
The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius 
Our Mathematical Heritage, Schaaf (ed.) 
Faust, Parts One and Two, Goethe 
Areopagitica and Of Education, Milton 
The Conquerors, Malraux
The Way of Life, Tzu

1964-1965
The Last Days of Socrates, Plato 
Lord of the Flies, Golding 
A Letter Concerning Toleration, Locke 
Fathers and Sons, Turgenev 
The Revolt of the Masses, Ortega y Gasset 
Alice in Wonderland, Carroll 
Richard III, Shakespeare 
The Human Use of Human Beings: Cybernetics and Society, Wiener

1963-1964
The Prince, Machiavelli 
Penguin Island, France 
Attack Upon Christendom, Kierkegaard 
The Saber-Tooth Curriculum, Peddiwell 
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Weber 
Agamemnon, Aeschylus

1962-1963
Looking Backward, Bellamy 
Pride and Prejudice, Austen 
The Nature of the Non-Western World, Dean 
An American Dialogue, Brown & Weigel 
Essential Works of Marxism, Mendel (ed.) 
A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens

1961-1962
The Ugly American, Lederer & Burdick 
The Lonely Crowd, Riesman 
She Stoops to Conquer,Goldsmith 
The Big Change, Allen 
The Book of Job 
The Crucible, Miller 
The Hidden Persuaders, Packard

1960-1961
1984, Orwell 
Selections from Leaves of Grass, Whitman 
Red Badge of Courage, Crane 
Abraham Lincoln, Vol. I, The Prairie Years, Sandburg 
The Screwtape Letters, Lewis 
Coming of Age in Samoa, Mead 
Oedipus the King, Sophocles 
Ideas of the Great Economists, Soule

1959-1960
Brave New World, Huxley 
Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, Bainton 
Common Sense and Other Political Writings, Paine 
Fear and Trembling, The Sickness Unto Death, Kierkegaard 
Hamlet, Shakespeare 
What is Art?, Tolstoy

1958-1959
Out of My Life and Thought, Schweitzer 
Psychopathology of Everyday Life, Freud 
Gulliver's Travels, Swift 
The Inferno, Dante 
Candide or Optimism, Voltaire 
Walden, Thoreau 
Civil Disobedience, Thoreau

1957-1958
The Odyssey, Homer 
Saint Joan, Shaw 
Modern Science and Modern Man, Conant 
The Origin of Species, Darwin 
Crime and Punishment, Dostoyevsky 
Communist Manifesto, Marx & Engels

1956-1957
The Autobiography of Ben Franklin 
Don Quixote, Cervantes 
The Prince, Machiavelli 
Dialogues of Plato 
Ghosts, An Enemy of the People, The Wild Duck, Ibsen 
Pilgrim's Progress, Bunyan 
Faust, Part One, Goethe

1956 (Spring Semester, pilot study)
The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne