Reading Paths
Not sure where to start? Each path is a short route through books in the Library, in a sensible reading order, with a line on why each one is there. Older books link to free copies; tick off what you have read, and it is remembered in this browser.
ποΈ Start with the Greeks
From fables to philosophy in seven books, roughly in the order they were written.
Aesop's FablesAesop Β· 550 BC
Short and easy, and a gentle first taste of the Greek way of telling a story with a point.
The IliadHomer Β· 750 BC
A few weeks in the tenth year of the Trojan War, and the anger of Achilles. Everything later in Greek literature looks back to it.
The OdysseyHomer Β· 800 BC
Odysseus's long voyage home, and the most readable of the ancient epics.
AnabasisXenophon Β· 370 BC
A true adventure: ten thousand Greek soldiers stranded in Persia, told by one of their generals.
The RepublicPlato Β· 380 BC
Socrates asks what justice is, and builds an ideal city to find out.
Nicomachean EthicsAristotle Β· 350 BC
Aristotle on happiness, virtue and friendship. Slower going, but it repays the effort.
Plutarch's LivesPlutarch Β· AD 100
Dip in anywhere: lives of famous Greeks and Romans, side by side.
π¦ Rome in Its Own Words
Soldiers, statesmen, poets and philosophers: Rome from the late Republic to its fall.
The Gallic WarJulius Caesar Β· 50 BC
Caesar's own report of his conquest of Gaul, in clear, plain prose.
On DutiesCicero Β· 44 BC
One of Cicero's last books, written for his son in the year Caesar was killed: how to live honourably.
The AeneidVirgil Β· 19 BC
Virgil's epic of Aeneas, the Trojan who fled to Italy, and Rome's answer to Homer.
MetamorphosesOvid Β· AD 8
Ovid's book of transformations, and the source of most of the myths we know.
Moral Letters to LuciliusSeneca Β· AD 65
Seneca's letters on how to live and how to face death, short enough to read one a day.
MeditationsMarcus Aurelius Β· AD 180
An emperor's private notes to himself. Best read slowly, a few pages at a time.
City of GodAugustine of Hippo Β· AD 426
Augustine's answer to the sack of Rome in 410. Long, so many readers choose selections.
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman EmpireEdward Gibbon Β· 1776
Gibbon's great history of how it all came apart, in famously elegant English.
π Myths and Legends
Gods and heroes from Greece to the North, then on into the legends of King Arthur.
A Treasury of Greek MythologyVarious
Start with the Greek myths themselves, retold for easy reading.
MetamorphosesOvid Β· AD 8
Then read many of the same stories as Ovid told them.
A Treasury of Norse MythologyVarious
Odin, Thor, Loki and the end of the world.
Irish Mythology and Fairy TalesVarious
The heroes and the fairy folk of Ireland.
BeowulfAnonymous Β· 1000
The Old English poem of a hero, a monster, the monster's mother and a dragon.
The Story of King Arthur and His KnightsHoward Pyle Β· 1903
Howard Pyle's lively retelling, a good way into the Arthurian world.
Sir Gawain and the Green KnightJ. R. R. Tolkien (translator) Β· 1975
The finest of the medieval Arthurian poems, here in Tolkien's translation.
Idylls of the KingAlfred, Lord Tennyson Β· 1859
Tennyson's Victorian Arthur, in verse.
βοΈ Faith and Reason
Christian thought from Augustine to C. S. Lewis, with the great poems along the way.
The Holy BibleVarious
Where everything else on this path begins. The Gospels are a good place to start.
City of GodAugustine of Hippo Β· AD 426
Augustine on the two cities, the earthly and the heavenly.
The Divine ComedyDante Alighieri Β· 1321
Dante's journey through Hell and Purgatory to Paradise.
Paradise LostJohn Milton Β· 1667
Milton's epic of the fall of Satan and of Adam and Eve.
The Pilgrim's ProgressJohn Bunyan Β· 1678
Bunyan's allegory of the Christian life as a journey.
OrthodoxyG. K. Chesterton Β· 1908
Chesterton explains, with great good humour, how he came to believe.
The Everlasting ManG. K. Chesterton Β· 1925
Chesterton again, on human history and the place of Christ in it.
Mere ChristianityC. S. Lewis Β· 1952
C. S. Lewis's wartime radio talks on what Christians have always believed.
The Screwtape LettersC. S. Lewis Β· 1942
Letters from a senior devil to his nephew: Lewis's sharpest and funniest book.
π Learning Latin
From your first noun to reading real Latin, with the site's own tools alongside.
Wheelock's LatinFrederic M. Wheelock Β· 1956
The standard course: forty chapters, each with readings from real Roman authors.
Workbook for Wheelock's LatinPaul T. Comeau and Richard A. LaFleur Β· 1980
Exercises to go with each chapter.
Allen and Greenough's New Latin GrammarJ. H. Allen and J. B. Greenough Β· 1903
The reference grammar to keep beside you.
Cassell's Latin DictionaryD. P. Simpson Β· 1959
A good desk dictionary, Latin to English and English to Latin.
Wheelock's Latin ReaderFrederic M. Wheelock Β· 1967
Your first longer passages of real Latin, with notes.
Winnie Ille PuA. A. Milne Β· 1958
A treat: Winnie-the-Pooh in Latin.
π¦ Gothic and Strange
Monsters, doubles and haunted minds, from Mary Shelley to Oscar Wilde.
FrankensteinMary Shelley Β· 1818
Often called the first science-fiction novel, begun when Mary Shelley was eighteen.
The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe Β· 1845
Start with The Tell-Tale Heart and The Fall of the House of Usher.
Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr HydeRobert Louis Stevenson Β· 1886
Short enough to read in an evening, and better if you can forget you know the twist.
The Picture of Dorian GrayOscar Wilde Β· 1890
A portrait that ages so its owner does not.
DraculaBram Stoker Β· 1897
Told in letters and diaries, which makes it feel surprisingly modern.
βοΈ The Russian Giants
The great nineteenth-century novels, then the Soviet century that followed.
Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoevsky Β· 1866
A murder, and what it does to the murderer. The best first Dostoevsky.
Anna KareninaLeo Tolstoy Β· 1877
Tolstoy's novel of love, marriage and society.
PlaysAnton Chekhov Β· 1904
The great plays, from The Seagull to The Cherry Orchard.
The Brothers KaramazovFyodor Dostoevsky Β· 1880
Dostoevsky's last and greatest novel: three brothers, a murdered father, and the question of God.
War and PeaceLeo Tolstoy Β· 1869
Napoleon's invasion of Russia and five families caught up in it. Keep the who's who handy.
The Master and MargaritaMikhail Bulgakov Β· 1967
The Devil visits Soviet Moscow, in a comic novel that could not be published in Bulgakov's lifetime.
The Gulag ArchipelagoAleksandr Solzhenitsyn Β· 1973
Solzhenitsyn's history of the Soviet prison camps, from the inside.