Something Old challenge

[fred_mouse]

My challenge for April is "Something Old". If you want to join in, let us all know what you are going to call 'old' in this case, and what you are hoping to achieve.

Is it the book itself that has to be old -- one that has been on that shelf so long the top is dusty? Something 'published before I, the reader, was born'? Could it be books you've had long enough that you don't remember acquiring them?

Or do you want to use the topic to define age? Have you acquired a history book that you are just raring to read? A Regency romance? Maybe, like a recent entertaining read -- The Thursday Murder Club -- you want older protagonists (and yes, if you like murder mysteries and chaotic neutral characters, there are worse choices).

Or!--and this is one I'm going to include--is it a reread of an old favourite?

Looking forward to hearing about your various choices!

Comments

[spiffikins]

I woke up this morning, thinking about a book that I last read many, many years ago - Mirror Dance by Lois McMaster Bujold. This challenge is a good excuse to pull that out and re-read it :D

[fred_mouse]

Enjoy! That is one of the Bujold I know I've read, but not recently enough to remember which one it is (is it the one where Mark turns up?). I'll be interested to hear whether you enjoy rereading it.

[spiffikins]

It's the one where Miles ends up an amnesiac - I woke up thinking about this scene, and snickered

[fred_mouse]

Ah! Yes, that is faintly familiar.

[peaceful_sands]

I've made myself 3 lists of 10 books - the first is of books that are on my TBR pile and were written before 2000 (even if I've only recently acquired them), the second is of books that have been on my TBR pile for 5 or more years and the final list is of non-fiction books where the subject matter is historical. A couple of books appear on more than one list and just to be clear from the start, I don't for an instant intend to try and get through all of the listed books. These are just a starting point for me to dip between lists and find a few books easily that might fill the 'old' theme in some way.

I'm starting with 'The River King' by Alice Hoffman which according to my record was both written pre-2000 and acquired in 2011 or earlier. When that's finished, I'll probably move to a historical non-fiction 'Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore' by Emma Southon.

[fred_mouse]

I really like the idea of having multiple lists to narrow down the choices. I'm not familiar with either of those, so will be interested in hearing how you go.

[fred_mouse]

I'm going to be targeting two sets of books for this challenge. The first is books that I started reading last year (or earlier! most of those I've DNF'd though), abandoned partway through, and actually want to finish. I count 8 books in this category that are achievable -- some of the others I have to get from the library again.

The second is the various history books that have been sitting on my TBR for some time. Specifically, The Vertigo YearsL Europe 1900 to 1914, SPQR, and An Informal History of the Hugos

ETA: Oh! and I want to finish my reread Dianna Wynne Jones Power of Three

I'll be happy if I finish twothree books from this.

[peaceful_sands]

I listened to an audio of SPQR a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it - so much so that I got the author's 'Pompeii: The Life of a Roman Time' more or less as soon as I finished.

It's quite a time since I read Power of Three, but I hope you enjoy your re-read. I don't know the other mentioned titles but I hope you enjoy.

[fred_mouse]

I've heard so many good things about SPQR, I'm really looking forward to it. My only concern is that I often struggle to maintain focus in books that require remembering previous chapters, and from flicking through it looks very information dense.