From Homer to Hemingway, great literature “challenges the intellect and the full range of a reader’s emotions,” says Harold Bloom, an English professor at Yale for 50 years. Bloom’s How to Read and Why (Scribner, $15, www.amazon.com) examines timeless works (like Don Quixote, Crime and Punishment, and The Portrait of a Lady) and offers insights on how to read them for maximum pleasure. “It helps to join forces with a group to read the older classics,” says critic David Denby, author of Great Books (Simon & Schuster, $15, www.amazon.com). Reading with others “helps overcome the strangeness” felt by some when they encounter works from another era. Denby recommends that one member bone up in advance to help guide the discussion. Norton’s anthologies provide summaries of authors’ careers and a consensus view of their works, says Sam Tanenhaus, editor of The New York Times Book Review. But if an author’s voice doesn’t speak to you, move on. “You shouldn’t read because it’s good for you,” Tanenhaus says, “but because you want to.”