Since Cornell’s New Student Reading Project started eight years ago, it has been a rite of passage for all Cornellians –­­ akin to the swim test, climbing the 161 steps to the clock tower and finding that elusive apple vending machine in Plant Sciences. Last year’s incoming class read Lincoln at Gettysburg, by Garry Wills, and the 2009 selection is John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Just as Lincoln at Gettysburg was assigned in time for Lincoln’s bicentennial celebrations, the themes discussed in The Grapes of Wrath echo the economic climate today.