For March and April, the Show Your Shelves Some Love Challenge participants are discussing the oldest books on our shelves. I knew I had some books on my shelf that had been there for several years, but I was a little shocked when I realized the book I’ve owned the longest and still haven’t read has moved from place to place, country to country with me since 2005!
- “The Holy Barbarians” by Lawrence Lipton – This book was mentioned in an episode of Gilmore Girls. It wasn’t an easy book to find at the time, especially since I was living in Korea, but I tracked a copy down through a used bookseller that didn’t have a problem shipping to an APO. I was a bit obsessed with the Beat Generation and majorly obsessed with all things Gilmore Girls; otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble of finding it.
- “Memory Mambo” by Achy Obejas – After my Abuelo passed away, I began finding and buying any book that might bring me a little closer to the Cuban part of my family.
- “Skin Trade” by Laurell K. Hamilton – I bought the hardcover when it first came out in 2009. I was only a book or two behind in the series at the time. Now there are 25 in the series (“Skin Trade” is #17), with the 26th due out in June of this year. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do!
Jess is disappointed in me. - “The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne – This book, and the next three, were bought free on my brand spanking new first generation Nook right before I deployed to Iraq in 2009.
- “Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert
- “The Hunchback of Notre” Dame by Victor Hugo
- “The Woman in White” by Wilkie Collins
- “Book Lust” by Nancy Pearl – Always a fan of books about books, as soon as I saw this offered on Nook, I snatched it up.
- “Hiking Alone” by Mary Beath – I purchased this while on a road trip in 2011. I had stopped for the night in Albuquerque, NM and when I got up the next morning, I realized my hotel was just across the street from the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.
- “The Old Curiosity Shop” by Charles Dickens – I bought this from a little independent bookstore and coffee shop in Utah during that same road trip. Their largest cup was “The Hagrid” and I’ve wished that coffee and tea shops everywhere offered “Hagrid”-sized drinks ever since.
It is now a goal of mine to clear these off my TBR this year. What are some of the oldest books on your shelf?