May was the first complete month that I’ve owned my Harvard Classics set, and I set a goal of keeping up with the daily readings.

Overall, I’d call it a success.

Out of 31 days, I only missed four readings. Looking at that number, it’s actually more than I thought I’d missed, but I’m still pretty happy with the result. The important thing is that I kept coming back to it day after day.

One of the things I enjoy most about this project is discovering works I didn’t know I’d like. One of the less enjoyable parts is revisiting works I already know I don’t like and discovering that, yes, I still don’t like them.

I’m looking directly at you, Walt Whitman.

I had to read Leaves of Grass in college and absolutely hated it. HATED it. How much do I still hate it? I skipped the May 31 reading entirely because I had no desire to reread even the preface. That’s not exactly the spirit of the project, but life is short.

To be fair, I did enjoy Whitman’s Abraham Lincoln poems from the April readings, especially O Captain! My Captain!, so perhaps there is some Whitman out there for me after all.

The biggest surprise of the month was how often I found myself enjoying works I never would have picked up on my own.

Favorites from May

Calderón’s Life Is a Dream
A philosophical play about a prince imprisoned from birth because of a prophecy that he would become a tyrant. When he is finally released, he must determine whether life is real or merely a dream. Strange, thoughtful, and much more engaging than I expected.

Cellini’s Autobiography
Part memoir, part adventure story, part ego trip. Cellini recounts the dramatic casting of his famous Perseus statue while feuding with nobles, dodging disasters, and generally behaving like the Renaissance’s most entertaining troublemaker.

Sheridan’s The School for Scandal
Probably my favorite reading of the month. A sharp comedy about gossip, reputation, and hypocrisy that still feels surprisingly modern. The famous screen scene—where characters keep hiding behind the same screen while more people enter the room—is straight out of a Marx Brothers movie. It felt like watching the birth of screwball comedy.

Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi
A dark tragedy full of secret marriages, family intrigue, and bad decisions. Everyone is plotting against everyone else, and it doesn’t end well for almost anybody. Grim, but compelling.

Manzoni’s I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)
A story of two young lovers trying to marry while powerful people and historical events keep getting in the way. It combines romance, adventure, faith, and social commentary in a way that explains why it’s considered one of Italy’s great novels.

Hood’s Poems
One of the month’s biggest surprises. Poems such as The Bridge of Sighs and The Death-Bed are sad, sometimes heartbreaking, but beautifully written. This is exactly why I don’t skip the poetry readings. Poetry isn’t my favorite genre, but I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how often I’ve found something I genuinely enjoyed.

Shakespeare’s King Lear
No surprise here. I’ve always liked King Lear. The story of an aging king who mistakes flattery for love and sincerity for disrespect remains one of Shakespeare’s most powerful tragedies.

The Thousand and One Nights
Fun, imaginative, and endlessly inventive. Reading these stories reminded me why they’ve endured for centuries. Adventure, magic, humor, and clever storytelling never really go out of style.

The AI Companion

One thing I’ve started doing after each reading is asking AI to summarize and explain it.

Not because I didn’t understand the story, but because it often helps me appreciate why the work matters or how it fits into literary history. The example that stands out most this month was The School for Scandal. I enjoyed the famous screen scene while reading it. Still, I didn’t fully appreciate how influential it was until I learned that it helped establish comic devices that would later become staples of farce and screwball comedy.

The additional context doesn’t replace the reading. It enriches it.

Looking Ahead

I’ve also noticed that some work recurs over multiple days. King Lear first appeared back in April and continued into May. Cellini’s autobiography has shown up more than once as well. That’s one thing I like about the Harvard Classics schedule – it doesn’t always treat great works as something to be checked off in a single sitting.

For anyone interested, the complete list of May readings is posted in the menu section of the site.

I plan to do one of these recap posts at the end of each month. Right now they’re mostly for me – a way to track what I’ve read, what I enjoyed, and what I didn’t. Maybe over time I’ll get better at highlighting favorites as I go.

And who knows?

Maybe someday I’ll even learn to appreciate Walt Whitman.

But let’s not get carried away.