If you're in college (can't remember if you are), you might also see if there are any folklore classes offered and track down the professor to see what books s/he recommends for getting started.

I did, actually! I took an Intro to Folklore that was incredibly disappointing. We didn't talk about mythology at all; rather the whole class was about ways to collect folklore, theories on why folklore such as jokes or urban legends became popular and how they spread and what they said about the populations telling them.

But I did get to write my term paper on the 'my hed iz pastde on yay' wank, since I made the argument that fandom_wank was obviously a folk culture, in terms of people who spend time together, share obscure termonology and create art, stories and other items as part of a shared community. That was fun.

Hemingway isn't too bad, and I haven't read Steinbeck, but I've rarely been very enthusatic for any books I read in school. Shakespeare's an exception, and I'm sure there's a few others I'm forgetting, but in general I've much preferred by own choices, even when it comes to "classic" type things.