I taught a freshman philosophy course for many years, and I often required two of the books you mention here: Lucretius and the Boethius. Lucretius is too long to tackle in one semester and still do the other readings, so I limited it to the first three books. They always hate it. On the other hand, they insist on doing all five books of the Consolation. It was a joy to be have an excuse every semester to reread those two books.
I taught a freshman philosophy course for many years, and I often required two of the books you mention here: Lucretius and the Boethius. Lucretius is too long to tackle in one semester and still do the other readings, so I limited it to the first three books. They always hate it. On the other hand, they insist on doing all five books of the Consolation. It was a joy to be have an excuse every semester to reread those two books.