I went to Columbia, with the most prominent 'great books' curriculum still in existence. 25 years later, I'm finding myself re-reading and discussing many of the titles. The Penn Greek Drama series is a handsome library of new translations that give fresh takes on the classics. It's useful to have Euripides on the shelf when you return home from the recent bravura performance by Fiona Shaw as Medea--it settled an argument too on how it 'originally' ended.

Though a difficult work, Piers Plowman is definitely worth reading for anyone studying English literature. This allegorical dream-vision follows the narrator, Will, on his journey though the world and into the depths of the human consciousness. Always vivid and imaginative, sometimes even humorous, this poem is a fascinating glimpse into mid fourteenth century England. Economou's translation of the lesser-read C text is often poetically quite beautiful and always easy for a modern reader to understand.