The Iliad

1. New Testament (I was not raised in a religious household) 2. The Imitation of Christ 3. The Lord of the Rings 4. The Iliad

The Odyssey The Iliad Moby-Dick Anything by Dostoevsky

Dive into the classics. John Cowper Powys may help you to plan a great journey : http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/12914/pg12914.html (Despite a few bizarre choices. Paul Bourget, seriously ?) If I had to choose myself : Homer (The Iliad and the Odyssey), the Bible (David's psalms and Job's book), Augustine, Dante, Saint Simon, Shakespeare, Rousseau, Dostoievsky, Proust, Céline. Aparté : If you like ambitious history with economic insights, I would strongly suggest to read Fernand Braudel works. He wrote three fantastic triptychs : - The Mediterranean: And the Mediterranean World in the Age of Philip II (his thesis) - Civilization and Capitalism, 15th-18th Century (the best history books I've ever read) - The Identity of France

Currently, the old testament. I am not church-goer or anything, and still I find it quite impressive the amount of surprising stuff (good and bad) you can find in there. It's actually as cool as the Iliad, and you may even find some good advice in there :). Hey, who said everything had to be around software/startups.

I read it in Dutch as translated by H.J. de Roy van Zuydewijn. If you want to read it in Dutch his translations of The Ilias and the Odyssey are highly recommended by me and more importantly my classics teacher. The Ilias is out of print but available in the second hand market at a premium. By the way: If you (edit: or anyone else ;) wants to read them I can loan them to you.