“Gun to your head: what is the greatest great book?”

“Too many good options…I’ll vote for ‘Anna Karenina.’  I take it as read, of course, that the unspoken stipulation is ‘except of course the Bible.’” — David Gaebler, Mathematics

“Aside from the Bible, the ‘Summa Theologiae.’ Though if I were holding a cane, then ‘Cane Fighting: The Authoritative Guide to Using the Cane or Walking Stick for Self-Defense.’” — Lee Cole, Philosophy

“‘The Culinary Plagiarist: (Mis)Adventures of a Lusty, Thieving, God-fearing Gourmand,’ by Jason Peters” — Jason Peters, English

“‘Moby-Dick.’ Didn’t have to think about that at all.” — Kelly Franklin, English

 “I’ll say Plato’s ‘Republic’—a pretty standard Hillsdale answer!” — Daniel O’Toole, Politics

“I’d go with the ‘Iliad,’ gun or no gun. It’s the book that takes the full measure of the human condition and accepts it for what it is.”—Mark McClay, Classics

“The ‘Aeneid.’ Not because it’s always a morally good book, of course — it’s too interesting to be that. But nothing else is quite like it in the richness and complexity of its engagement with previous literature on the one hand, and its monumental status as a point of reference for literature in different periods after its own time. But only if you read it in Latin.That’s only half a joke. There are few things in ancient poetry that are damaged so much by translation as Virgil’s dense, ambiguous language. If you have only read the ‘Aeneid’ in translation, you have never read the ‘Aeneid.’” — Gavin Weaire, Classics