Overall though, I think books are overrated. Many of them have about as much quality info as a good <20 minute TED talk or a solid 15-page blog post. I assume that's because authors are pressured to inflate whatever they're trying to say until it reaches at least "book length" (~100 pages).
This statement needs some qualification. A book like Thinking fast and slow is a dense exploration of new concept and worth every single page in it. Thinner books suffer from your criticism though, they are barely worth more than a couple of good blog posts.
Personally I am inclined to read and buy books with more than 300 pages, as the books longer than that are surprisingly information dense and shorter ones surprisingly empty.
I wonder how much insight can be pressed in ever less words until it becomes a tweet.
My sister (and about 2.5 million other people) are headed to college in the fall.
I gave her a copy of Cal Newport's How to Win at College as a graduation gift, but given that her life is about to change more than it has in any of the past 14 years, one book probably isn't enough.
What books do you think incoming/recently arrived college students should be reading? You can assign reading with any motivation you'd like, but I'm looking especially hard for books that meet the following criteria: