Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
Oh I love this one! What a great idea. Sometimes it’s fun to look back at older books and see which ones hold up well, or still make you smile in the way they did when you originally read them. Or – as is my case – sometimes you pick up older books not quite knowing what to expect, and find they’re much better than anticipated. This is going to be a fun list to do – maybe one day I’ll have to try making the time period older, see what books I’ve read from over 50 or 100 years ago, though some of them still made it onto this list…
Publication dates taken from Goodreads.
Books I Love That Were Written Over Ten Years Ago
Regency Buck by Georgette Heyer
Original Publication: 1935
This and False Colours both get mentioned on this blog a lot, especially recently, and there’s good reason for that – they’re excellent books. Witty and sweet with plenty of poking fun at the ton. Regency Buck is among the most famous, and the first one I read, and helped cement for me my love of Regency Romance.
Read my reviews of Regency Buck / False Colours
The Sandman, Volume 1: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman
Original Publication: 1990
Ah, The Sandman. What an utterly fantastic series, and picking one of them is hard, but I think out of what I’ve read already, Dream Country stands out as my favourite, exploring other characters and containing separate stories that expand the world. Weirdly it seems to be the only one so far I haven’t reviewed – seems odd for me to miss that, but it might be I had no words to convey how much I loved it!
Read my reviews of The Sandman, Volume 1 / Volume 2 / Volume 4
The Umbrella Academy, Volume 1: Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way
Original Publication: October 17th, 2007
I originally picked up the first couple of issues of The Umbrella Academy not long after they were released, getting them from a shop in Camden while visiting my brother. I didn’t read the full volume 1 until relatively recently, however. The full volume is really great, the characters fun, and the TV show is just different enough to keep it entertaining for that medium, but carries the heart of the original graphic novel well.
Read my review of The Umbrella Academy, Volume 1
Original Publication: June 19th, 2001
I kind of didn’t expect Gaiman to feature multiple times, but there we are. American Gods is one of those books that has just stuck with me since I originally read it, and the inspiration for Supernatural is evident. Not that long ago I listened to the audio version, and loved it just as much as when I originally read it.
Read my review of American Gods
The Boys, Volume 1: The Name of the Game by Garth Ennis
Original Publication: March 28th, 2007
I didn’t expect there to be so many graphic novels either, but they’re definitely the older types of books I read, more so most recently. But yeah, I really liked the first volume of this series – dark, as you’d expect, but with some decent humour mixed in too. Like The Umbrella Academy, the TV series has made some good and interesting changes, but retains the core.
Read my reviews of The Boys, Volume 1 / Volume 2 / Volume 3 / Volume 4
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
Original Publication: October 16th, 1959
Another I only read relatively recently, and definitely the kind of classic that holds up. Eleanor is fragile and unsure of herself, and kind of latches onto the others in the house. It’s a really interesting narrative and the close perspective keeps you firmly in Nell’s head through some absolutely chilling moments.
The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman, Becca Puglisi
Original Publication: April 21st, 2012
If you are a writer and you don’t have this on your shelf, you need it. It’s a fantastic guide to the various ways in which emotion can be shown, both internally and externally. It’s the book I constantly find myself recommending, and it really gets you to think deeper about what your character is thinking and feeling, and how that can be conveyed whether we’re in their POV or not.
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman
Original Publication: May 1st, 1990
More Neil Gaiman! This time with the incredible Terry Pratchett, creating a story that pits the forces of Good and Evil against one another and finally resulted in some excellent David Tennant and Michael Sheen screen time. Seriously, those two work so well together as Crowley and Aziraphale. There’s some good send ups in here of stuff like The Omen, too. It’s a really fun ride.
Original Publication: September 29th, 1995
The book that inspired a hugely successful musical, but if you’ve only seen the sage play, the book itself is vastly different. I like both, but I think the book really expands on the political side and satire, emphasises what makes Elphaba such an outcast, and has a much, much darker ending. Basically, if you’ve wanted to pick this up because you love the musical, I’d suggest banishing the musical from your mind first.
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Original Publication: January 10th, 2011
I really need to continue with this series. Rivers of London is Urban Fantasy, with PC Peter Grant as the main character, who discovers that a lot of the stories around magic are, well, real. I absolutely loved this when I read it, and got totally sucked into the story. It’s one of those tales that takes London and adds some excellent mythology to it, which isn’t easy to do considering how much exists already. Still, if you like Urban Fantasy, it’s a good one.
That was fun. I think sometimes I get caught up in reading new releases or trying to keep up with ARCs, but it’s great to sometimes revisit ‘older’ books and remember what caught your interest about them in the first place, and how much of a joy they were to read. What about you? What are some of your favourite books over ten years old?
Unwrapping Words 
Great list. I get so caught up in the blog tours, arc reviews, author requests that sometimes I forget to read just for pleasure. And that’s what started the whole book review blog to begin with. Lol
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Oh absolutely! I’ve started spreading out arcs a little more so I can at least try and make a little more time for books I’ve picked out and purchased for myself
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Ahhh Rivers of London! Absolutely loved that one, I need to continue the series too 😅
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It’s so good!
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