Serious question

>>9744808
begin with the sumerians

>>9744845
Clay tablets of the river people

Start with the Mesopotamians (particularly Gligamesh, Atrahasis and Enuma Elish), consider optionally reading some Egyptian works (The Book of the Dead [just don't get Budge's translation it's bad], Sinuhe, and A Man and His Ba). Then unironically start with the Greeks, alongside the Bible. Pretty much all of the surviving Greek works are worth reading, especially if you want to read later literature.

After finishing the Greeks, outside of a few pieces of literature that pretty much everyone should probably read (The Aeneid, Metamorphoses, Don Quixote, Shakespeare, etc.), where you should go really is more up to you, and what you are interested in reading.

You can consult one of any number of canon lists. Bloom's is pretty comprehensive, and Adler worked on a few decent lists.

Make sure to read secondary texts as well. Especially for extremely important texts like The Bible and Homer.

Yes, it's fairly short really.
Aesop's Fables
Homer's Illiad and Odyssey
Plato's The Republic.
Bible.
Varagine's Golden Legend
Kempis' Imitation of Christ
1001 Nights
Montaigne's Essays
Don Quixote
Grimm's Fairy Tales

and you're set. You'll be able to pick stuff for yourself after that. Good luck.

>>9745026
>straight from Iliad/Odyssey to Plato
Can I really do this? I thought I had to read like 50 boring texts before Plato?

>>9745304
>Thinks the greeks are boring
Not going to make it.

>>9745333
the iliad and the odyssey are pretty entertaining to be honest... why would you say that? I don't understand.

>>9744808
http://sonic.net/~rteeter/grtbloom.html

>>9745304
Yes, you can do this. Yes there is a lot between all these books but go for those first and the you will be able to manage for yourself.
If that list is too much for you, go for Illiad, Bible, Republic, Quixote.