/lit/ - Literature

what are the comfiest classics? mine is pic related

I started with the Greeks, read the romans and then the bible. Where do I go next?

I've been avoiding older literature for a long time. When i say older, I mean greeks, romans, the Bible.
Will reading these books give me a better appreciation of literature written in the past 200 years? Or is the reading of these books primarily for their own benefit?

When does this get good?

My brother got sick recently and has to be confined to his bed for a few months. I'd like to get him some books to cheer him up but I'm not much of a reader. He likes stuff like pic related (it's one of his favorites).

Where do I find similar collections of interesting facts, stories and anecdotes taken from history (preferably ancient to early medieval period)?

Dramatized biographies of ancient historical figures (e.g Hannibal by Patrick Hunt) or good historical fiction are welcome as well. I'm posting this here instead of /his/ because I'm looking for things that better defined as literature than pure history, as he's not so much interested in the scholarship of history but rather historical settings.