I was thinking this while reading The Canterbury Tales, which isn’t exactly the oldest I’ve read (I think that goes to Homer)

But The Canterbury Tales is just so delightful! Getting into the flow of the rhyming prose is very fun to read (I’ve just been reading the Penguin Classics Coghill translation which is fantastic)

I’ve already watched the Pasolini adaptation but I’m definitely going to revisit once I finish the book.

  • modulus
    1·
    1 year ago

    The Decameron by Boccaccio is probably the oldest, in terms of reading for pleasure.

    There’s the odd older thing I like, such as Greek philosophical dialogues or plays, but I’m not sure I’d count them as books, and they’re more interesting than fun.

    I like a lot of slightly less old stuff: Essay on Man by Pope, Confessions of an English Opium-eater by Quincey… Oh, and now that I think of it, I suppose Omar Khayyam’s Rubáiyát is pretty old too.