Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.  Tales of ordinary stalwart folk facing overwhelming odds and surviving through greatness of heart, told in prose whose art has never been equaled.  Extremely good for reading aloud.
	The Dragon Riders of Pern by Anne McCaffrey.  The first four books are the best of the series.  Science fiction with a fantasy feel.  In-other-words, the tech is low and there are dragons and harpers.  A wonderful world, the pinnacle of McCaffrey's writing.  Also very worthy are the first three Harper Hall books, following young Melonie in her quest to create music, and her adventures with bird sized dragons.
	The Knights of the Cross, With Fire and Sword, The Deluge by Henryk Sienkiewicz.  Historical novels about medieval Poland.  Incredible adventures.  Only the Curtain translations retain the beauty of Sienkiewicz's prose.  All the modern translations butcher the language in order to 'modernize' it.  Sienkiewicz won the Nobel Price for Literature in 1901.
	Shakespeare.  The Bard.  Of course.
	"Paladin of the Lost Hour" by Harlan Ellison.  One of my favorite short stories.  A tale of responsibility, love, and loss.
	A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains by Isabella Bird.  One of the greatest women ever.  She traveled the world as a single woman in the Victorian era, which was unheard-of.  Her daring, appreciation of beauty, and strength of her character inspire.
	A few poems:  Moved, The Rose Family, Once by the Pacific, Jaberwocky, Lodged
	Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.
	Everything in the Earthsea series by Ursula LeGuin, including her latest set of short stories, Tales from Earthsea.

	I've always been interested in the old, epic 'true' stories of humanity.  History can be difficult to read, so many place names and people all in the order of time, some concurrent, some affecting others, some simply mentioned for one brief anecdote.  The trick I have found is to imagine the history as I read it.  If I don't know, I try to find out what the people wore, what their ships looked like, their homes, then I can write the imagery story in my mind that goes with the narrative history of the book.  A truly fine historian makes this easy.  Of the few I've read, Peter Green is the best at this.
	Life in a Medieval Castle	Joseph and Frances Gies
	Life in a Medieval City	Joseph and Frances Gies
	The Gallic War	Julius Caesar
	The Armourer and his Craft	Charles Ffoulkes
	The Barbarians	Tim Newark
	The Celtic World	Barry Cunliffe
	The Medieval Warhorse	Ann Hyland
	Peru Before the Incas	Edward P. Lanning
	The Greco-Persian Wars	Peter Green
	Empire of the Bay	Peter C. Newman
	The Myth of the Great War	John Mosier