Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge discussion

A Book Written By the Oldest Author in Your TBR Pile

My initial question is whether the author must still be among the living...or not? I'm going to opt for a book published prior to the 20th Century. Some possiblities are books written by:
Jane Eyre
Charlotte Brontë
Wilkie Collins
Charles Dickens
There are so many of these I have not read but that I really want to read!

How will you choose to interpret this prompt and which books will you select?

This is a personal/individual selection, so no Listopia!

I have like 1,200 books on my TBR and am definitely not going through all of them. I'm going to approach this as the oldest *living* author on my physical TBR, a much more approachable task, which puts me with Ken Follett, so I guess I will tackle World Without End.

Chelsea wrote: "I have like 1,200 books on my TBR and am definitely not going through all of them. I'm going to approach this as the oldest *living* author on my physical TBR, a much more approachable task, which ..."

Follett is one I have not yet read.

I think this is a good prompt to read Shakespeare.

I sorted my TBR by publication date, picked the oldest ones published before 1900 around the same time, and looked up the year each author was born. Interpreting oldest as "how old would they be today" rather than "oldest living" or "how old were they when they died/wrote the book/etc."

Of the classics in my TBR, Austen wins out with the earliest birthdate. I'll finally read Emma, I think.

I'm going to try to go by age. I googled older authors and the list that came up (I think from Bookriot) had both Tom Wolfe was in his late 80s when he died and Doris Lessing was in her late 90s when she died. I have books by both authors on my TBR. I suppose I ought to pick up The Golden Notebook next time I'm at the library, I've heard it's not easy to get through....

I think I'm going to go for oldest at the time they published their last book, though I'm not going to spend too much time checking my initial impulse that that is Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth, which was published when the author was 87 (and probably doubles as oldest still living author, as he's now 90!) My runner-up I think is Toni Morrison, who published her final novel at 84, and then probably Umberto Eco who published his last book at 82.

Using the rule of 'oldest living'...

Would have to be, at age 78, La Belle Sauvage by Phillip Pullman. I nearly died finding out he had written a sequel-trilogy to His Dark Materials, and the third installment is in editing! So I have to hurry up and finish the first two :D

Age 92 or 93 Elena Poniatowska "She is considered to be "Mexico's grande dame of letters" and is still an active writer." Wikipedia.

Tinisima or Here's to You, Jesusa!

I am stymied about how to find this info on my TBR without having to look up author info book by book. Not sure that I am willing to spend my time doing that.

Bea wrote: "I am stymied about how to find this info on my TBR without having to look up author info book by book. Not sure that I am willing to spend my time doing that."

Just guess - I saw the one I'm using on a list of Nobel -prize possibilities, where it was noted that they would need to hurry up. It is an annoying prompt.

Erica wrote: "I think this is a good prompt to read Shakespeare."

Yes, I'm reading The Comedy of Errors.

Such an open ended prompt. I need guardrails.....But I will either go for a Homer or Shakespeare. Other thought is I am planning on reading the Ramona Quimby books to my daughter next year, and Beverly Cleary was 104 when she passed away 3 years ago, so I can see using one of those books for the prompt to.

I hate this category. It's confusing, it's difficult, it's annoying, and - most of all - it's depressing, because several times I discovered that an author I used to love is now deceased and i didn't know it and now I'm well in touch with my own mortality thanks for nothing, Popsugar!!!

I randomly selected authors that I thought might be older, but still alive, and here are the authors I found that are in their 70s or 80s

Margaret Atwood 85
Marilynne Robinson 81
Paulette Jiles 81
Ann Maxwell 80
Mary Balogh 80
Connie Willis 78
Mary Lawson 78
William Gibson 76
Jodi Taylor 72
Pat Cadigan 71
Louise Erdrich 70

Well, I'm still not totally certain what they meant for us to do for this prompt, but I'm going with the interpretation of 'by the oldest living author on your tbr' ignoring what age they were at the time they wrote the book.

My five oldest living authors:
John McPhee - 93
Charles Wright - 89
Ann Wolbert Burgess - 88
Joyce Carol Oates - 86
Keith Miles - 84

Interestingly, I found that a lot of the oldest living authors on my list were poets, so maybe we should all write more poetry.

I haven't got the slightest idea how to work this out. On my Goodreads TBR there are almost 4000 books. On my physical shelves at home there are about 700 still unread books.

I interpret the task as the age of the author, not how long ago it was since they lived. I'm just going to choose an old writer. P.D. James for example would be a good choice since she wrote her last book when she was 91 years old.

I found this list: https://lithub.com/10-over-75-a-readi...

I'm interpreting it as oldest still alive, which will probably make it Haruki Murakami who is 75. Not that old, but the oldest on my list.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Without spending eons googling the age of every author on my tbr, I'm hazarding a guess that Isabel Allende is the oldest living author on my list (or at least a version of it) at 82. I think I'll probably just read one of hers and call it a day!

Diana Athill published her memoir Alive, Alive Oh!: And Other Things That Matter when she was almost 98. Although I’ve already read that one I have another listed which came out when she was only 91.

My guess is something written by Shakespeare. King Lear would be a reread, but I (my husband) also have/has the Complete Works of Wiliam Shakespeare in one volume. Somewhere around here, lol. It doesn't really seem like the kind of thing you could lose, and yet I don't see it on my shelves.

If I don't go with Shakespeare, then next up is either Walden or The House of the Seven Gables

Why oh why did I put The Illiad on my TBR.

I have thousands of books on my tbr so I sure as heck am not looking for the oldest living author. I hate this prompt! Even if I did nix Homer the perfectionist in me doesn’t want to hunt down who would be next in line.

I just went by the oldest book on my TBR list -- the author's still the oldest, he just also happens to be dead. So it looks like I'm going with The Island of Dr. Moreau...

I'm going with The Illiad. I've been meaning to read it for awhile anyway.

THIS is the kind of thing I have no trouble using AI for (not for creative things, but filtering data is a-ok by me).

I have over 800 books on my TBR, too many to try to sort through to find the oldest author. I wanted to find the oldest LIVING author on my list so I could honor them while they are still here. I copied and pasted my TBR into excel, then kept only the authors column, then deleted duplicates. I pasted the list into ChatGPT and told it that I was looking for the oldest living author on the list. It answered that of the data it was able to find for the authors listed, the oldest one was A.S. Byatt at 88 years old. So I slotted her 1990 novel "Possession" into that prompt's place.

Jennifer wrote: "THIS is the kind of thing I have no trouble using AI for (not for creative things, but filtering data is a-ok by me).

I have over 800 books on my TBR, too many to try to sort through to find the o..."

I have an A.S. Byatt book on my TBR, so thanks for the unintentional help.

Haley wrote: "Without spending eons googling the age of every author on my tbr, I'm hazarding a guess that Isabel Allende is the oldest living author on my list (or at least a version of it) at 82...."

Oh nice, her book In the Midst of Winter is on my list of books to read next year. Thanks for the info!

Jeniece wrote: "Such an open ended prompt. I need guardrails.....But I will either go for a Homer or Shakespeare. Other thought is I am planning on reading the Ramona Quimby books to my daughter next year, and Bev..."

Wow. I had no idea she was that old! Cool info! Thanks for sharing!

Yesterday, I ordered my Wishlist TBR from oldest published to newest and then checked each author page to see if living or dead. The first page was fairly easy as many of those books were published so long ago that I only checked the authors I had not heard of...
On the third page, I found 3 before I quit checking. It is possible that I have an author somewhere in those 1400 books that is older than John Grant...but I felt that 91 and still living was old enough. I will be reading a book he wrote under another name: Jonathan Gash.
The Judas Pair has been on my Wishlist TBR since 2013

Bea wrote: "Yesterday, I ordered my Wishlist TBR from oldest published to newest and then checked each author page to see if living or dead. The first page was fairly easy as many of those books were published..."




yeah there's no way I'm sorting through my entire TBR to find THE ONE truly oldest author. I'm taking this category to mean "ONE OF the oldest authors on your TBR"

Michele wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "THIS is the kind of thing I have no trouble using AI for (not for creative things, but filtering data is a-ok by me).

I have over 800 books on my TBR, too many to try to sort thro..."

Glad I could be of service! :-)

Jennifer wrote: "THIS is the kind of thing I have no trouble using AI for (not for creative things, but filtering data is a-ok by me).

I have over 800 books on my TBR, too many to try to sort through to find the o..."

And this is why I don't use AI.....my interpretation is that you wanted an author who still alive; A. S. Byatt passed away about a year ago (11/16/23)

Sorry if I interpreted your intention incorrectly

Looking thru my TBR list I asked Siri for author’s ages that I thought were older:

Mary Downing Hahn is 86
RL Stine is 81
Stephen King is 77
Nora Roberts/JD Robb is 74

Looks like I’m using Mary Downing Hahn

Bea wrote: "Yesterday, I ordered my Wishlist TBR from oldest published to newest and then checked each author page to see if living or dead. The first page was fairly easy as many of those books were published..."

Good thinking! I tried that and found that Tom Robbins is 92, so I'll be going with Jitterbug Perfume for this prompt.

Denise wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "THIS is the kind of thing I have no trouble using AI for (not for creative things, but filtering data is a-ok by me).

I have over 800 books on my TBR, too many to try to sort thro..."

Just over a year dead? Meh, I'll take it. Good enough.

Jennifer wrote: "Looking thru my TBR list I asked Siri for author’s ages that I thought were older:

Mary Downing Hahn is 86
RL Stine is 81
Stephen King is 77
Nora Roberts/JD Robb is 74

Looks like I’m using Mary ..."

Denise wrote: "Jennifer wrote: "THIS is the kind of thing I have no trouble using AI for (not for creative things, but filtering data is a-ok by me).

I have over 800 books on my TBR, too many to try to sort thro..."

This is what I did too. I checked a few random authors that I though might be older and was surprised to find out that Janet Evanovich is 81 years old. I think I will go with her newest Stephanie Plum book!

You know, another way to interpret this prompt is to go with the author who has been on your TBR the longest (ie "oldest"). The first book on my TBR is Keeping Faith by Jodi Picoult, so I could pick any of her books.

If you're looking for a loophole! ;)

I'm going for C.J. Cherryh age 82. My book is Downbelow Station.

Well, since I found out A.S. Byatt passed away last year, I guess John Sandford comes through for me again. I used several of his books for 52 Book Club last year, so the "tradition" continues.

I'm torn between living and dead for this one.

I know Norman Maclean was pretty elderly when he was first published (74, I believe, for A River Runs Through It and Other Stories), and he was still working on Young Men and Fire when he died aged 88 - it was finished for him using his notes.

Andrea Camilleri was 69 when the first Montalbano novel was published in Italy, and 77 when it was translated into English. If you go by when his last one was published while he was alive, it was either 2018 or 2019, when he would have been 93 or so.

I have a feeling I'm going to just read what I'd read anyway, and if I happen to come across an older, living author, make a note of it and see who comes out oldest at the end of the year!

This was the easiest way I did it…. Exported my bookshelves from Goodreads, copied the list of TBR authors into ChatGPT and asked it to find the oldest author for me. Thought about it looking at the AI recommendation.

Ended up being Lois Lowry, but Margaret Atwood and Anne Perry were close.

Also honorable mentions were Philip Pullman and Stephen King.

Chelsea wrote: "I'm going to approach this as the oldest *living* author on my physical TBR, a much more approachable task, which puts me with Ken Follett, so I guess I will tackle World Without End."
Oh thank goodness. I'll go with that. I have a couple of Follet titles on my TBR.

If he isn't oldest living on my TBR, he's at least close enough.

I'll probably go with a philosophy book since I've got things by Plato and Marcus Aurelius, etc.

This task is a nightmare of a task. I'm just going with ONE of the oldest authors, and picking Stephen King. Cause I want to finally read The Gunslinger, and I have no energy to figure out who's really the oldest living author on my TBR pile.

Jackie wrote: "Well, I'm still not totally certain what they meant for us to do for this prompt, but I'm going with the interpretation of 'by the oldest living author on your tbr' ignoring what age they were at t..."

My five oldest living authors:
John McPhee - 93

Thanks for finding this in particular! - I've had Coming Into the Country on my TBR since I went to Alaska in 2019 and it's a good excuse to finally read it!

I usually put together a "pile of possibilities" each month. I figure that is manageable enough for me to look up the age of each author at the time of the book's release.

I just spotted an interview with Alan Garner, of The Owl Service and The Weirdstone of Brisingamen fame.

He turned 90 in October!

Jennifer wrote: "THIS is the kind of thing I have no trouble using AI for (not for creative things, but filtering data is a-ok by me).

I have over 800 books on my TBR, too many to try to sort through to find the o..."

I have tried this and accidentally discovered that it gave two different answers the two times I've run the same prompt. (I accidentally asked Chatgpt the same question lol)
Anyways I googled oldest author and added her book to my tbr. Fuck this prompt

Had quite a list. I'm going old school philiosopher:

The Symposium by Plato.

Short read too. Only 64 pages.

Kenéz wrote: "... Fuck this prompt ..."



OMG I laughed way too hard at your comment!!!! 😂🤣😂🤣

Well, if I go with the oldest living author on my list, it's 90-year old Piers Anthony, and I'll be reading his version of Total Recall.

If I go with the oldest author overall, it's going to be The Symposium by Plato. I'd never heard of it until Ron posted it above, but it sounds interesting and is short, so I'll probably give it a try.