I have been so excited to write this post ever since I first saw it over at Bookish Chat! The premise of “birth-date books” is to pick the books on your bookshelves that correspond with the numbers of your DOB and age–it’s a fun way to get a random selection of what you’ve got on your bookcase.
My birthday is on November 18, 1999, and I am 19 years old. Here in the USA, we write our dates as month/date/year, rather than date/month/year, and I stuck to that. So, I picked the 11th, 18th, 99th, and 19th books on my shelves.
I started with the top shelf and went from left to right in each shelf as I went down the bookcase. (I’m thinking of doing this again, and I have a few different twists planned in order to have more variability.)
I have my shelves organized fairly well by category, and considering that three of the numbers of my DOB & age are so close together (11, 18, 19), I’m not surprised that there isn’t that much variance within this selection :’) I have THREE non-fiction, historical titles out of the FOUR selected books.
Are you ready to dig into a random selection of the books on my bookcase?
Book 11
It would have been totally acceptable for me to forgo this, the 11th book on my shelves, as I have already written a review of it on my blog. In fact, it was the first proper book review I’ve ever done, and I am still very proud of it. I’d love for you to give that a read, and let me know what you think of it!)
I chose to pick it anyways since I want my review of it to get a little more attention :’)
A quick little blurb about my experience with Dunkirk: Retreat to Victory–it is pure military history. Although it was incredibly interesting (World War 2 history SUCKS ME IN), it was a hard read as it is so factual and full of lists and descriptions of military-related terminology and weaponry. I enjoyed it nonetheless and learned so much from it!
Book 18
I have had this book for almost THREE YEARS NOW. And guess what? Yes, you guessed right. I still haven’t read it, to my great shame.
The library at my high school was getting rid of books that hadn’t been checked out in years, and this was just one of the books I took from those discards. (S/o to our librarian; she loved me and my sister, so we had first pick of all of these books.)
The Kennedy Tapes hold just under 630 pages of tape transcripts (and context about them) from the Cold War. Starting on Tuesday, October 16, 1962 and finishing on Monday, October 29, 1962, these are a written record of the spoken word, and what was a poignant and critical moment in history.
We get to follow President Kennedy’s every word and interaction with others at a time when America stood on the brink of potential destruction. How thrilling is that?! I can’t wait to actually read this :’)
Book 99
Now, this is the book that I am most ashamed to say that I haven’t read yet. I have loved watching Little House on the Prairie since I was a wee little lass. I discovered the books shortly thereafter, and I have read ALL of them, multiple times, except for the last two.
This is the eighth book of the nine original books that Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote about her family’s life. It chronicles Laura and Almanzo’s courtship, and I believe it ends with their wedding.
I’m gonna re-read this series ASAP, so I can finally read the last two titles!
Book 19
KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps was one of three books that I actually received for my birthday this past year. (HOW COOL AND IRONIC IS THAT?!) It’s book 19, and hey ho, what do you know, I’M 19, AND THAT IS JUST TOO MUCH. Triiipppppy.
Although I have read the other two books I received (Dunkirk: Retreat to Victory was one; The Gestapo: A History of Horror was the other, and I reviewed it in June!), I have yet to read KL.
I think I’m going to start it next month, after I’ve gotten back into the swing of things for school. For now, I’ll stick to “easy” reads, in other words, fiction/fantasy/books that don’t take loads of focus.
The back-of-the-book blurb describes it as “a landmark work of history,” on that details virtually everything about the Nazi concentration camps. I am so excited to learn from this book!
I think what’s making me chuckle the most is the fact that I’ve only read ONE out of these FOUR books. That’s only 25%. OOF. I can guarantee you that there are quite a lot of books in my bookcase that I have NOT read. But, there are many books that I have read. I wonder what the stats are :’)
Is this round-up of birth-date books a random enough selection as well?! Three of them are so similar :’)
How did y’all enjoy this post?! I adored reading the original post, so please give that read, and follow Bookish Chat if you’re not already!! I’m so happy I discovered her this summer 🙂 It was so fun to curate this random selection of books by looking at what I’ve got on my own bookcase, using my birth-date, and a great reminder to get reading what I’ve already got instead of buying more new ones….that’s a real struggle isn’t it?
I am so excited to do different twists of this in the future! What one out of these are you most drawn to? I’d love to hear your answer in the comments. Thanks for reading <333