I had the best bookish surprise this week. It felt like Christmas all over again! I was giggling (fan-girl-style) and my kiddos were telling me to calm down. But what a wonderful treat! My dad sent me a small gift—something he'd stumbled across on eBay and decided to get for me instead of just telling me about it (like I probably would have done).
It's a tiny set of cards (less than 2"x3") that was made in 1935 and featuring twelve different authors. Each author has four different books listed, and the game is played like Go Fish. One of the things I love most is the viewpoint from the 30s. I know most of the authors, but some I don't. Interesting to see what is renowned at different points in time (assuming that was the reason these authors were picked). I have to say that it made me add some new old books to my list! This will be the perfect little treat to add to my bookshelves once our renovation is complete!- Oliver W. Holmes (Over the Teacups, The Guardian Angel, Songs in Many Keys, Elsie Venner)
- R.L. Stevenson (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Treasure Island, Merry Men, Kidnapped)
- Joseph Conrad (Youth, Typhoon, Chance, Almayer's Folly)
- Rudyard Kipling (The Jungle Book, The Light that Failed, Just-So Stories, Soldiers Three)
- Charles Dickens (Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist)
- H.W. Longfellow (The Golden Legend, Tales of a Wayside Inn, Evangeline, Hiawatha)
- Louisa M. Alcott (Little Women, Little Men, Eight Cousins, An Oldfashioned Girl)
- Sir J.M. Barrie (Peter Pan, Peter and Wendy, The Little Minister, A Window in Thrums)
- H.H. Jackson (Glimpses of California, Nelly's Silver Mine, Letters from a Cat, Ramona)
- T.W. Burgess (Lightfoot the Deer, Old Mother West Wind, Adventures of Reddy Fox, Mrs. Peter Rabbit)
- Cornelia Meigs (The Trade Winds, Rain on the Roof, Clearing Weather, The Crooked Apple Tree)
- Booth Tarkington (The Conquest of Canaan, Gentleman from Indiana, Monsieur Beaucaire, Penrod)
Someone should come up with a reading challenge for Forgotten Bestsellers!
ReplyDeleteI love that term - Forgotten Bestsellers! I actually have had some very good reading experiences when picking up older books (1920s etc) that have fallen into obscurity. Wouldn't it be great if there was an easy way to compile and organize them? Just thinking about it makes me a bit dizzy.
DeleteWhat fun!!!
ReplyDeleteIsn't it? I love books and old stuff, so this was just about as good as a gift can get. Especially receiving it out of the blue like that.
DeleteThis is the coolest gift ever! Go figure--Conrad's choices are nothing what we read today! Where's Heart of Darkness???? And who the heck is Jackson and Tarkington? I thought Ramona was written by Beverly Cleary.
ReplyDeleteIsn't that fascinating? Some of the books definitely looked like they were more on the junior fiction side, but I'm still so curious.
DeleteOh cool! I used to play this game with these exact cards all the time at my Aunt's house when I was little. Good memories.
ReplyDeleteSerious? How cool is that! Come to my house and play with me?
DeleteI will indeed.
DeleteHi Melody!
ReplyDeleteI'm happy to see you got a copy of this game! I discovered it last year (even wrote a post about it http://bibliophilica.wordpress.com/2013/07/03/why-dont-they-male-games-like-this-any-more/ ) and it seems there are different editions of it featuring different authors, as the one I pictured is a different set than yours. My "friend at the bar" said the one I pictured was the same one that he remembered as a child. What a fun way to learn authors and their works. I can't believe my parents never got the game for my brothers and me when we were growing up.
-Jay