#ReviveBaB!

Chatterbox: Blab About Books

Books From Olden Times
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I don't know about you guys, but I love books written in the 19th century and early 20th century. Eg. Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, the Little House books. I was wondering if anyone else shared my interests or had a recommendation for me/other "Olden Book" lovers. 

The Secret Garden!

Admin

submitted by Wolfy_Walker_7, age 11 winters, she/her
(April 8, 2021 - 6:43 pm)

Those books are all really good! Some of my favorite old books are Winnie the Pooh, the Edward Eager books (they're sort of old I guess), Charlotte's Web, Alice in Wonderland, and the Hobbit.

submitted by Lupine, Platform 9 and 3/4
(April 8, 2021 - 10:01 pm)
submitted by Top!
(April 8, 2021 - 10:02 pm)
submitted by TOP!, age Topping, Topopolis
(April 9, 2021 - 7:51 am)

I love The Secret Garden!

submitted by Wolfy_Walker_7, age 11 winters, she/her
(April 9, 2021 - 7:52 am)

I love those books, too!

submitted by Dewdrop , age 11
(April 9, 2021 - 8:05 am)

Definitely the Hobbit, like Lupine said, and also the Lord of the Rings. Oh and Little Women is really good too! 

submitted by Sabine
(April 9, 2021 - 8:19 am)

I love old books like that too! You said all the ones I can think of though....

submitted by pangolin
(April 9, 2021 - 8:24 am)

Pretty much anything written by JRR Tolkien. Also I picked up a strange book by the woman who wrote Frankenstien; this book was written in the 1820s, and it's about the world being decimated by a sickness. Kinda weird and prophetic? Yep. It's not bad, though.

submitted by Silver Crystal, age Infinity, Milky Way
(April 9, 2021 - 10:09 pm)

I like Jane Eyre! And I don't know if this counts, but Laura Ingalls Wilder's books are really cool, too.

submitted by Viola?, age Secret, Secret
(April 10, 2021 - 6:36 pm)

Little house on the prairie! It is very racist towards native peoples but you have to take the time into consideration and once you do the books are amazing. I don't know if this is too recent but Agatha Christie! 

submitted by Princess Juniper, age she/her, Nowhere
(April 11, 2021 - 9:05 am)

Yesss!!!

Agatha Cristie all the way to the moon!

I feel like it really has/had an impact on my way of speaking and writing, though, for better or worse...

submitted by Jaybells, age Obscure, Lost in the Universe
(April 21, 2021 - 3:49 pm)
submitted by top
(December 14, 2022 - 9:29 pm)

Yes!! Books from olden times are the best! It's amazing, when you think of the huge number of novels that are published these days, how few of them are anything like what Dickens or L. M. Montgomery or Louisa May Alcott managed to write. I guess it's just that most people now write for money, and their idea of what will "sell" is not necessarily interesting... :/

Anyway, my recommendations for "olden books" are:

-Gone-Away Lake and Return to Gone-Away, by Elizabeth Enright. They're from the 1950s, I believe, so they're not that old. They're about two kids who live in the countryside and have all sorts of adventures, like discovering an abandoned ghost town where two people still live...  They're really well-written and absorbing, and the characters (all of which are just like real people) are wonderful.

-All the books by Edward Eager, most of which are fantasy with witty or unique twists.

-Meggy MacIntosh and The Fair Adventure, by Elizabeth Janet Gray. The first one is a historical fiction novel about a girl who emigrates from Scotland to the United States and gets caught up in the American Revolution, and the second is a very well-written, fun book about the adventures of a girl who lives in the southern US. It was written in 1940.

-The Cherry Ames series, by Helen Wells. It's about the adventures of an American nurse during the Second World War, and it's exciting, heartwarming, or funny by turns. I believe it's out of print so it may be hard to find, but I really recommend it. It's from the 1940s as well.

Do you have any recommendations by any chance?

Iffy says mouvt. Move it?

submitted by Poinsettia, age who knows, Narnia
(December 16, 2022 - 6:29 pm)

I mostly read olden books now, honestly. And I totally agree with you, I love the ones written in early 20th century. Some of my favorite books are from that time period. Anyway here's my list:

- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn: Everyone! Go! Read! This! Book! I promise you will not regret it, it's so wonderful, it's my absolute favorite book.

- All the Agatha Christie Books

- Emma: it's long but I kind of love the setup, like she gets three suitors, a charming one who turns out to be a jealous weasel when she rejects him, another charming one that turns out to be a conniving ground squirrel who I vehemently loathe, and one of them, who was right under her nose all along, turned out to be the one she married. 

- A Tale of Two Cities: this one's really hard to read. I only did it because my sister and I read it aloud to each other and absolutely dissected it's meaning every paragraph. it's really interesting though.

- Heidi: I love this book, but only the beginning, when she's a happy little child living in the mountains with her grandfather, and she goes up with Peter every day and eats her fresh cheese and milk, and tells beautiful stories to Peter's blind grandmother, and she sleds down the mountain to school, and I would totally swap places with her if I could. but then she goes to Frankfurt and it gets depressing.

- A Little Princess: this is a good book. It's kind of sad in the middle but it starts to pick up when the MC starts recieving her mystery gifts... 

submitted by Phoenix Tears, age 13 she/her, Revolutionary Grape Jelly
(December 18, 2022 - 12:45 pm)

'a conniving ground squirrel who I vehemently loathe' XD

Emma's on my mile-long reading list, but I may have to bump it up a few spots for the sake of that synopsis.

and I'm currently reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (because I saw you talking about it on here somewhere else) and I wholeheartedly agree! It's amazing. among other things, I love the way Betty Smith describes things. (an empty apartment is a nearsighted man with his glasses off. because of course.) so true, too. it reminds me of The Book Thief, a bit.

submitted by Artemis
(December 18, 2022 - 5:44 pm)