Preparatory reading
We are very pleased that you have chosen to come to Royal Holloway to study Geography. You will find it useful to do some preparatory background reading before you arrive. In our first year, all single honours students take four lecture-based courses, in addition to a skills-based course in Geographical Techniques, and a course in Geographical Research and Field Training, which culminates in the residential field trip to Spain. The organisers of the four lecture courses have made the following recommendations for preparatory reading:
GG1001 Physical Geography I: Atmosphere, oceans & geosphere
GG1002 Physical Geography II: Biogeography, ecology & scales of environmental change:
Holden J. (2012) (ed) An Introduction to Physical Geography and the Environment. (3rd edition) Pearson ISBN 0-27-377183-8
GG1003 Human Geography I: Cultures, economies, histories
Daniels, P., Bradshaw,M., Shaw D., & Sidaway, J. (2012) An Introduction to Human Geography, (4th edition). Pearson. ISBN: 0273740709
Cloke, P., Crang, P., and Goodwin, M. (eds). 2014. Introducing Human Geographies (3rd edition). London , Routledge ISBN: 9781444135350
GG1004 Human Geography II: Politics, society, development & environment
Cloke, P., Crang, P., and Goodwin, M. (eds). 2014. Introducing Human Geographies (3rd edition). London , Routledge ISBN: 9781444135350
Daniels, P., Bradshaw,M., Shaw D., & Sidaway, J. (2012) An Introduction to Human Geography, (4th edition). Pearson.ISBN:0273740709
Williams, G, Meth P., and Willis K. (2014) Geographies of Developing Areas: The Global South in a Changing World, second edition, Routledge ISBN: 9780415643894
We don't necessarily expect you to buy all of these books, but they are used extensively in the first year, and will inform your studies later in the degree programme. If you are able to obtain these books before the start of the course, you needn't try to read them from cover to cover, but focus particularly on their introductions, and perhaps the ways in which they cover particular topics with which you may be familiar with from your studies to date.