Monday, September 18, 2023

Decades And Decades Of Books

This will be a bit meandering because I don't think I have a clear point, but in response to my niece asking for some books for her 21st birthday (she seems to read just about anything), I have been contemplating decades of books being released in my lifetime.

I'm old enough that those "new" books I read when I was 21 are not very new at all now. Quite old in fact! Giving her a book released in 1993 is equivalent to giving me a book (then) written in 1963.

Agatha Christie was still publishing. Kurt Vonnegut released Cat's Cradle. Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.

And then I started to think about books and authors that were a Big Deal but probably she's never even heard of. Or maybe! How would I know?

Anyway, no real point here, and these are hardly novel observations, just contemplating how culture appears and fades and how the The Kids Today can't be aware of most of it.  I imagine some of those great books were more timely than timeless, likely not landing particularly well today. 1993? Trainspotting. The Shipping News. The Night Manager. 

Anyway, the request was books not "old books," but so many new-to-me-then books are, now, "old books"