{"id":28946,"date":"2021-09-14T16:00:04","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T21:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/?p=28946"},"modified":"2021-09-14T13:22:35","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T18:22:35","slug":"do-i-read-old-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2021\/09\/14\/do-i-read-old-books\/","title":{"rendered":"Do I Read Old Books?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cedar Sanderson has a post called <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cedarwrites.com\/2021\/09\/13\/the-old-books\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">The Old Books<\/a> which has numerous quotes from C.S. Lewis in it, including this one:<\/p>\n<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/bsgfx\/lewisquote.jpg\"><\/p>\n<p>Which led me to wonder:  I have many, many fine old books from the 19th century and a bunch from the early 20th century, but how many of them do I actually read?<\/p>\n<p>So I reeled back through the last year and nine months to see what the oldest printed works I have read since the beginning of 2020.<\/p>\n<p>Although not ancient, I have read the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/04\/book-report-red-plush-and-black-beard-condensed-by-marguerite-higgins-1955\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Red Plush and Black Beard (Condensed)<\/em><\/a> by Marguerite Higgins, published in 1955.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/22\/book-report-under-milk-wood-by-dylan-thomas-1954\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Under Milk Wood<\/em><\/a> by Dylan Thomas, published in 1954.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/11\/27\/book-report-the-power-of-positive-thinking-by-norman-vincent-peale-1952\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">The Power of Positive Thinking<\/em><\/a> by Norman Vincent Peale, published in 1952.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/11\/book-report-the-house-of-man-by-william-a-bone-1919\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">The House of Man<\/a><\/em> by William A. Bone, a chautauqua talk from 1919.<\/a>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/06\/book-report-miltons-minor-poems-by-john-milton-edited-by-philo-melvyn-buck-jr-1894-1911\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Milton&#8217;s Minor Poems<\/em><\/a>, an 1894 edition edited by Philo Melvyn, but the printing I have is from 1911.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/16\/book-report-miltons-comus-lycidas-etc-by-john-milton-edited-by-andrew-j-george-1899-1908\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Milton&#8217;s Comus, Lycidas, Etc.<\/em><\/a> by Milton; this edition, edited by Andrew J. George originally appeared by 1899, but I read a 1908 printing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Additionally, I started reading an 1886 copy of Mary D. Brine&#8217;s <em>From Gold to Grey<\/em> which I <a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/09\/the-covered-books-of-nogglestead\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">used to have wrapped in a shopping bag for its protection<\/a>, but I set that aside to read off and on.  Mostly off.<\/p>\n<p>It makes sense that it&#8217;s mostly poetry and pamphlets; I have numerous old small collections of poetry in the Houghton-Mifflin editions and the Maynard&#8217;s English Classic Series, and I&#8217;m more prone to picking up small poetry collections than larger works.  This holds true no matter the edition.<\/p>\n<p>I think the post on Sanderson&#8217;s blog was more about reading older works in whatever edition since she and commenters talk about Project Gutenberg.<\/p>\n<p>As to reading old books, c&#8217;mon, man, you know me.  In the same period, I&#8217;ve read:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2021\/07\/01\/book-report-three-comedies-by-aristophanes-edited-by-william-arrowsmith-1969\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Three Comedies<\/a><\/em> by Aristophanes<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2021\/05\/04\/book-report-david-copperfield-by-charles-dickens-1850-1986\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">David Copperfield<\/em><\/a> by Charles Dickens<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/07\/book-report-the-book-of-five-rings-by-miyamoto-musashi-1643-1645-2005\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>The Book of Five Rings<\/em><\/a> by Miyamoto Musashi<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/03\/book-report-the-picture-of-dorian-gray-by-oscar-wilde-1891-2007\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">The Picture of Dorian Gray<\/em><\/a> by Oscar Wilde<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2021\/01\/07\/book-report-wuthering-heights-by-emily-bronte-1847-2004\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Wuthering Heights<\/em><\/a> by Emily Bront\u00eb<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/11\/11\/book-report-goblin-market-and-other-poems-by-cristina-rossetti-1995\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Goblin Market and Other Poems<\/a><\/em> by Cristina Rossetti<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/08\/17\/book-report-a-few-flies-and-i-haiku-by-issa-selected-by-jean-merrill-and-ronni-solbert-1970\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>A Few Flies and I: Haiku by Issa<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/04\/02\/book-report-the-cyclops-heracles-iphegenia-in-tauris-helen-by-euripedes-1969\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">The Cyclops\/Heracles\/Iphegenia in Tauris\/Helen<\/em><\/a> by Euripedes<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/02\/04\/book-report-barnaby-rudge-by-charles-dickens-1841-1997\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Barnaby Rudge<\/em><\/a> by Charles Dickens<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/2020\/01\/21\/book-report-doctor-faustus-by-christopher-marlowe-1592-1978\/\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"noopener\">Doctor Faustus<\/em><\/a> by Christopher Marlowe<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Good to see that I&#8217;m getting some good reading in amongst the men&#8217;s adventure and movie tie-in paperbacks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cedar Sanderson has a post called The Old Books which has numerous quotes from C.S. Lewis in it, including this one: Which led me to wonder: I have many, many fine old books from the 19th century and a bunch from the early 20th century, but how many of them do I actually read? So [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3334,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3334"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28946"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28948,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28946\/revisions\/28948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brianjnoggle.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}