VMI Summer Reading (Unofficial): Classics (46 to 50)



The Mask of Agamemnon

 

 

46. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley



Scarily predictive of the world we have made. Enjoy your time at the "feelies."

47. Complete Short Stories, Ernest Hemingway



I was going to recommend a shorter collection (In Our Time), but no, you should read them all. The war stories are particularly fine. After that you should read For Whom the Bell Tolls and A Farewell to Arms.

48. Complete Short Stories, Mark Twain



I direct your attention specifically to A Private History of a Campaign that Failed and The Mysterious Stranger.

49. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, unknown (Burton Raffel, trans.)



Surprisingly pleasant to read and with very important things to say about honor, and how even the best of us fall short.

50. Iliad, Homer (Stanley Lombardo or Richard Lattimore translations)



Read the Lombardo translation if this is your first time with the Iliad. Read the Lattimore if you're serious. How can you graduate from a military college without having read the greatest book on war, friendship, and death?