Hey, there! It's Olivia-Savannah from Olivia's Catastrophe and I'm here to read the oldest
books on my TBR. And there's no better way to know what of the oldest books on my TBR I need to read
in 2023 than to make a video about them. So I did this last year and I managed to read nine of them,
nine out of ten, I think that's jolly good and I see it as a success because I've actually read
some of the books I've had for the longest. And so I'm going to show you the 10 plus the one that
I didn't finish last year and those are going to be my unofficial official 2023 TBR because
it'd be good to read some of the books I've had for the longest. So let's see what these TBR
vets are. So the first one that I have here is The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. So
I read The Final Empire over a year ago now and I had a very good time with it and I thought it was
such a good start to the series. Did I make the effort to go and read the sequel? No, I did not,
so the sequel is still one that I need to read. I tend to enjoy series and I just don't do a very
good job of continuing on with them. I'm a very much a standalone girl so some of these are going
to be sequels. And yeah, I'm actually excited to get to this, I think it's going to be a good time.
And I did read The Final Empire surprisingly quickly so I think this is going to fall into
a similar boat. The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa. This was gifted to me when I left
home and left my church by a lovely old lady and she is so nice. And actually I started this book
once for a readathon so I can see that I got 37 pages in. And I actually really enjoyed those
first 37 pages but I got distracted and since then I haven't got back to it but I really need
to. And it's actually not that long so I think this is going to be one that I can absolutely
whiz through. And I know it's going to be one I enjoy because I really liked those first 37
pages so it's just a matter of sitting down and actually reading it. But it does sound like it's
going to be very, very good and very, very sweet and heartwarming. Then we have The Girl with the
Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. I picked this one up secondhand somewhere and it doesn't actually
sound like something I would read now and I think that's why it's been on my TBR for so long because
it's absolutely not the kind of book that I'd read. And if I am going to be reading something
that's a bit mystery thriller-ish, it's not going to be one that's this chunky. I do have a friend
who absolutely loved this series and raced through it so I'm going to give this one a fair shot. It's
secondhand, the sticker won't come off, so it's not the nicest edition. So if I don't like it,
I don't have any qualms with just letting it go. But I'm going to give it a chance, I do want to
give it a go. It's such a popular series. We have Clean by Juno Dawson. So I got this one at an
event when I met her for the first time in, um, in my first year of university. And I loved her talk,
I thought she sounded great, so I just thought: “yes, I'm going to get this book.” And since then
I've read a Juno Dawson book and really, really enjoyed it so I know I'm gonna have a good time
with Clean probably. I just need to get to it and actually pick it up. I just can't believe it sat
on my TBR for that long. And also it's young adult so again I don't think this is going to take me
too long to read. I just need to prioritise it and get reading. This technically counts as one book
for this TBR but it's split into two here in the U.K. and that is A Storm of Swords by George R.R.
Martin and it is the third book in The Game of Thrones series, A Song of Ice and Fire universe.
And I Read A Clash of Kings finally last year as part of my oldest TBR so of course the sequels are
the next oldest books that I own. And yeah, it's a really, really long book. It's over a thousand
pages if it's in one edition which is why it's split into two over 500 pages books. And as you
can see there at the top, I've got a bookmark in. I've already read 100 pages of this in 2022. I've
got a head start. I thought: “I'm just going to continue on with this series. I've got to
do it.” So I do think this is going to take my sweet time throughout the year. But I'm very
much looking forward to it because I think this is going to be the deciding factor about whether
or not I truly enjoyed this series and whether or not I want to continue reading it. So everything
rests on admittedly this one. If I don't love this one, I'm not going to continue and read the second
part. So admittedly, this is the tie-breaker for whether or not I actually am a Game of
Thrones book fan or if I should just mind my own business and watch the rest of the TV series.
We have Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I never really gravitate to Charles Dickens.
He is an author who takes his time with his books, he's very slow, long-winded,
and it goes on forever. But I often like them so I don't know why I'm hesitating to pick them
up. So the next one, the oldest one I've had is Great Expectations. And I actually just was so
surprised that I found a bookmark in this and then I remembered that I actually did start this once
upon a time and I read a good 80 pages. So I am actually 80 pages into Great Expectations and I'm
gonna just pick up from there again because that is what I do even though it must have been years
ago. I'm- I'm looking forward to finally reading Great Expectations. I think my sister really,
really liked this one. And now I'm remembering what I've read, I know I've met some very iconic
characters that people talk about and refer to so looking forward to seeing what I make of this
at long last. So we have two Dostoevsky books. I think I talked about her when I was younger
last year I just- I just decided I would love Dostoevsky even though I hadn't read any. So I
just picked up a lot of his books and so there come on some of the oldest books on my TBR. So
I've actually started reading this one which is his comedy and it's quite funny as well as
having a lot of commentary on society and also the treatment of women, and classism, and money.
And I've read 172 pages, almost 200 pages, and the font in this is tiny and it's a long book so
it's actually quite a good chunk. I am loving it so I'm looking forward to continuing and
finishing the book. And then as well as that I've got Devils which I know absolutely nothing about,
but seeing as I've loved the two Dostoevsky books I've read, I think it's fair to say I'm probably
going to enjoy this to some extent. And it's even longer than the one I'm currently reading now
so that's intimidating because they're both on my list for next year. I'm actually surprised that
there's not as much non-fiction on my oldest on my TBR so it seems like I don't leave non-fiction
till- I don't procrastinate reading my non-fiction books. But one of them is Desert Flower by Waris
Dirie and it's been on my TBR for a very long time because I know that when I bought this it was
in my first year of uni. You know when you're in your first year of uni and you get control of your
money in a large quantity for the first time like your student loan comes in for the first time and
you're just like: “wow, look at all that money I can spend on books rather than on food, and bills,
and stuff like that.” Yeah, I did that. So I bought this from Book Depository just because it
was about three to four pounds at the time. And I didn't know anything about it, I wasn't even keen
on non-fiction back then. And actually this one sounds like it's got very intense subject matter
and I'll put that in the content description box down below rather than say it on the video. And
I'm gonna read it. I- I have thought about whether or not to read this one for a very long time
but I think I'm gonna give it a go. I'm gonna give it a go. We have Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman.
This is from my steampunk western era when that was what I really loved to read. And admittedly,
I still really love to read those two things, I just find less and less books that are kind
of published about it that are mainstream and I need to dig deeper into kind of self-published
indie good quality stuff to find it. But mostly I kind of fulfil my ‘I love space western steampunk’
books by reading fanfic. And this is not space specific but this is definitely western steampunk.
The cover looks great, deckled edges which I actually really like, and I've heard good things
about it. I just need to pick it up and prioritise it. I think because I don't hear about it very
often it doesn't get pushed to the front of my excitement level. And then last but not least,
we have a book that's not in the English language – we have the Dutch edition of Twilight, so
Twilight by Stephenie Meyer in Dutch. I know why this is one of the oldest in my TBR – it's because
it's in Dutch and I really struggle with reading in Dutch. Not as in I find it difficult to do,
but in that I read three times slower than I read in the English language. English,
my first language, I'm fluent, I studied English Lit which means I had to read a lot so I'm very
fast when I read in English. And in Dutch I am just so slow and I find that so very
difficult. So yes, I have started this behemoth of a book. I got 50 pages in, so not even that far,
but it was a good- it's a good way for me to reread the book because I love the book. Be
aware that there was lots of racism in this book and it's not actually good in terms of, yeah, it's
not good in terms of actual like politics around it, and depictions, and representations. And I'll
leave a link where you can donate to the actual Quileute Tribe down below. But yeah, I do think I
haven't reread Twilight in a while in its entirety because I reread scenes every now and again,
but I think it'd be a fun way to reread the book. It's also got Life and Death but it's
not my physical TBR because I want to read it in English first and then I will reread it in Dutch.
And there you have it – those are the oldest books on my TBR that I'm planning to read throughout
2023 slowly and steadily because some of these are classics, non-fiction, and big chunky fantasy. And
so I hope you'll have fun joining me on this journey. Do subscribe if you want to hear my
thoughts on any of these and please let me know in the comment section down below: what is one
of the books that you think has been waiting for you to read on your shelf for the longest? Let me
know. We all have one like that. Give this video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, hit the subscribe
button if you want to see more, and don't you forget to hit that notification bell to be updated
every time I have a new video. And you know what they say: onwards and upwards. Excelsior!