This isn’t the best of all pictures, I know.  However, it does reveal my pitiful classic collection.  So far I’m reading Dante’s Divine Comedy aloud to my little sister, I finished The Prince and I’m working on Paradise Lost.  Next on my list to tackle is Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations and then Homer’s Iliad.

This is my personal collection and is rather misleading seeing as we have a lot of classic books in the family collection.  I haven’t really read many of them, mostly because the bulk of the reading I do now is YA for my blog, but I have been slowly working my way through all the classics everyone says you have to read.

I’m rather enjoying reading Dante aloud because right now we’re on the first book in The Divine Comedy, The Inferno, which is obviously the most famous one.  When read aloud, it is quite powerful poetry with a lot of heavy imagery.  The only problem is trying to explain to my little sister what the carnal sinners did…

Paradise Lost is apparently in the style of Homer’s epic poetry, so I can honestly say that I’m tackling The Iliad next because John Milton’s own epic is very good.  Both epic poems are on my ‘to read aloud’ list because I find I understand things better when I read aloud and my little sister does enjoy it when I read to her.

Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations are right up there because a) Marcus Aurelius was awesome and b) some parts of Stoicism appeal to me.  Hopefully this philosophy will prepare me for when I tackle Plato and Aristotle.

I hope to add Caesar’s Commentaries, Livy’s Ab Urbe Condita Libri, Tacitus’ Histories and Annals, Silius’ Punica, the works of Sophocles and many, many more to my collection some day.

So what classic books do you guys have?  And which ones do you hope to read?