Books That Came Out Before I Was Born

Hello! It’s Tuesday, which means it’s Top Ten Tuesday Time! Today is the day we get together with all our book friends and talk about books. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl.

Today’s topic is supposed to be “Books that Made Me Laugh Out Loud” but I’m not sure if I can come up with 10. I know there are more than that, but there aren’t a lot of books I can come up with that I think “Oh my that was funny!” Today’s post would be full of Sandhya Menon and Cassandra Clare books. Since I missed a couple weeks, I’m going to go back a couple weeks and do “Books That Came Out Before I was Born” instead, which was the topic for a few weeks ago. I’m going to start with books on my TBR, then move on to books that I’ve read.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – William Shakespeare. Shakespeare’s plays are classics. I saw this play when I was in middle school (I think). Maybe I read it then too? Either way, I’d like to read this play.

Up From Slavery – Booker T. Washington. I’m sure many of you have heard of Booker T. Washington. He started life as a slave and later went on to found what is now Tuskeegee University. I’d love to read his autobiography someday.

Война и мир (War and Peace) – Leo Tolstoy. While this is often thought of as the quintessential long book, it’s only between 1150 and 1400 pages, depending on what edition you get. And I’m sure the translation matters too. While I’d love to read it in the original Russian and French someday, I kinda should finish reading Дивергент (Divergent) first. It’d be much easier to read, and it’s less than 1/2 the length.

And that’s all the books on my TBR that were made before I was born! That being said, there are plenty of other books that were made before I was born, that I either have read or would be interested in reading.

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire – Edward Gibbon. I’ve actually been reading the unabridged version of this book for several years now. I’m 29% of the way through the book. It’s 3,672 pages. I don’t read it every day, and it’s a difficult book. But it is interesting to read about all of these emperors. It also gives me ideas for fictional books I might want to read. Another thing that I like about it is that it reminds me that–politically, things can get a lot worse. I can feel fortunate that they’re not.

Anna Karenina – Leo Tolstoy. I read Anna Karenina a long time ago. I don’t remember much about it, so I’d like to read it again. I had aspartame poisoning when I was in my 20s, and it affected my memory from that time. I would watch a movie and couldn’t keep track of the characters in the movie while I was watching it. I forgot a lot about the books I read too.

Little House on the Prairie (series) – Laura Ingalls Wilder. I’d love to read the entire Little House on the Prairie series again someday. There are a couple more books written after The First Four Years, which I’ve never read, and I’d like to read someday. Ms. Wilder was an inspiration to me; someday I’d like to write my autobiography as well. She fictionalized a few details, and I probably would too.

Anne of Green Gables (series) – L. M. Montgomery. I’d love to read the Anne of Green Gables books again (although my favorite is Rilla of Ingleside). When my grandma died, I really wanted to inherit her Anne books. She loaned them to me when I was in middle or high school. I haven’t read them since, but they definitely need another read someday.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Victor Hugo. I read Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables in 2019, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame is “only” 553 pages in comparison. This is a book I’d love to get around to reading someday.

The Count of Monte Cristo – Alexandre Dumas. I have a copy of this book somewhere in my garage, but it looks a little thin, considering that the book is 1138 pages and the copy I have doesn’t look like a brick. I’ve seen the movie, but I’d love to read the book someday. Books contain so much more information–especially if they’re over 1000 pages, you know there’s a lot in the book that never made it to the movie! One of the things I love about old books is that it takes you back into that time period in a way that books written about older time periods cannot.

The History of the Franks – Gregory of Tours. I’ve actually read this book twice already, but I’d read it again someday. It has fantastical stories about the early Frankish kings (that would be, kings that ruled what is now France). It wasn’t meant to be a fantastical story either. I love to read it and wonder what actually happened and was miraculous, and what was just made up. Reading these stories after being more familiar with the characters in the stories I think would change the way I saw the book.

So there are ten stories that were written before I was born, that I’ve either read before and would like to read again, or I’ve never read but would like to. Did you write about funny books this week? Maybe I need to read some of the books on people’s lists this week! Especially as the pandemic is getting close to a year now.

Next week Chain of Iron comes out! Here, we’ll be talking about “Characters Whose Job I Wish I Had.” I think I can do a better job with those than funny books. I mean, there have to be at least 10 books about princesses or authors or something, right? But I’m sure I can find a few others too.