The Count of Monte Cristo
If you’re new to reading classics, this is a great place to start. It’s a pageturner from beginning to end. You get to experience a world where honor, beauty, learning, and privacy existed.
There are two major English translations available. One is an anonymous Victorian-era translation with quite poetic although antiquated language, and some omissions to accomodate Victorian prudery. The alternative is a 1995 translation by Robin Buss, with more modern and less delicate English.
Markens grøde (Growth of the Soil)
The book that makes you want to get out of the cities and embrace a rural, simple life. Hamsun had a remarkable gift for poetic, living, breathing prose. English translations don’t always preserve this. There are some good ones.
A Concise History of Western Music
A very well written and richly illustrated overview of our music, and the cultural context in which it emerged.
The Odyssey
In delightful language, the story of how Odysseus returned home and set matters right.
Don Quixote
The first part of the book is hilarious. Then hilarity gradually turns to melancholy, as you start to understand the good knight. He chooses his madness. He chooses a life of heroism and virtue in a world devoid of these things.