Religious books

[Angrboda]

If you exclude religious art from your experience of art, you're going to unconditionally exclude some good with the bad. That being said, artistic techniques improve over time, so much that was written in the past is not as good as more current efforts. But it's like music; some of it is timeless, and some of it doesn't age well. Given the religious reasons for the popularity of much of the material, though, it can be hard to determine what is popular because it's good rather than popular just because it's required.

I personally like reading older theology and philosophy because it fills in the mosaic out of which modern thought is constructed. Philosophy is like a dialogue, extending back in time throughout history. If you don't understand what was said in the past, you'll miss important elements of what's being said in the present.