It's not fiction but non-nonfiction

Got it? Or not quite. My first year at University every freshman, regardless if you were studying to be a rocket scientist, the next big thing on Wall Street, or the sneered at English major - read Herodotus. It was mandatory. I tried to like it. I didn't. I was not alone. At the end of the year the bookseller on campus always had a box out front where students could "deposit" their copy of Herodotus for the next year's lot to read. But unlike other textbooks, they wouldn't give you a dime fo...