(I would quote you, Angel Crow, but it won't let me?! - Ah well)
I know, it got changed quite a bit -- I was so stubborn on Nottingham, though actually...UEA ended up my insurance! So the poor favourite didn't end up being so...favoured :P
I think of all of them they'd like us to have a go at the Iliad before we arrive, but otherwise there don't seem to be many others "strongly recommended" as they put it. The rest seem to be those we need to purchase, and the uni bookstore will have them all in stock so I doubt there's much immediacy, no.
I know Dan Brown get lambasted, but provided you go in knowing you're not reading high-brow literature worthy of the great classics (and perhaps not so historically accurate...haha), I actually don't get the fuss about them being terrible. I think they're quite a nice read!
Oooh that sounds so good! Yup, we're doing Chaucer...I think actually in the second term maybe of first year? I feel like I've seen his name come up before, but perhaps not the Canterbury Tales -- something else, IIRC.