I’m currently in college getting an BA in history. My general plan for afterward includes a PhD in classics/ancient history. I’m both looking forward to and absolutely dreading the required reading. With the insane amount of information I’m going to have to learn (Latin, Greek, French and German on top of the all the ‘history stuff’!) I’d like to get a head start. What I’m looking for is a list of books I should read. Many graduate-program websites have a recommended reading list but I’d like something a little more concrete. Also, I’d like it to be ordered. If there is one book I absolutely have to read, what would it be? What would should I read next?
I know there isn’t a “right” way to do this, but I’d like your opinion on where I should start.
if you need to learn 4 languages the book you must read for each language is, in my opinion, not a specific book by this or that author, but is the book which is the shortest book you can find ASAP near you which covers the whole ground at a high/basic level. less than 100 pages ideally. read it cover to cover. then once you’ve read it all the way through read another longer and more detailed one. and so on. starting the process ASAP and covering the full scope at a high level with a short book will help you, i think, more than searching out the perfect book which is long and detailed where you might get stuck in the opening parts which usually deal with how to spell nouns, and not quite get to the rest of the language before you start your course - as a beginner, better to have a good overview of the whole than a detailed knowledge of a little part and no knowledge of the rest of the language. for the modern languages you can also use all the courses that are out there to get some basics into your head ASAP like the michel thomas courses.