I want to keep a book aside as the last book I’m going to read when I’m very, very old.
Personally I’d recommend the Quran. Although I wouldn’t recommend delaying reading it.
I wouldn’t wait to read something I actually want to read, because life and death is unpredictable.
I would rather plan to reread a book at different stages of life and find out how much I’ve changed by how differently feel about the same story.
Or I’d (re)read something like House of Leaves, just because it’d be very funny to have that type of book be the thing that finally kills me.
Something lighthearted and not depressing. Anne of Green Gables
I don’t have a real recommendation, I just want to say that I think this is a bad idea; What if the highly recommended book turns out to be one you find mindnumbingly boring and/or stupid? I can see this working if it’s the last book in a series you already like, but otherwise it’s risky.
Read what you want, and don’t hesitate.
Also, phonebook.
You want to save a book you want to read till you’re super old?
Accidents happen…
If you want to read a book, read the book. Don’t plan to read it in 20-60 years
Probably.
But idk… Reading a book that you planned to read like 60 years ago when you were much different seems cool to me
Reading a book at 20, then again at 50, then again at 80 will hit very differently. I’m not yet 50 but I’m rereading books that already feel like an entirely new experience. The Hitchhiker trilogy is one example. I’m more ready to sympathize with Arthur than I was the first time around.
I reread Pratchett’s Night Watch every couple of years and it’s different every time. Ditto Nation.
I’d read an encyclopedia of the history of my lifetime to remember things I might have forgotten.
That and a photo album of my life.
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. It’s a farewell and reflection on his life as he faces his inevitable death from cancer. It’s beautiful and sad and insightful
There’s no way I’ll want to read heavy shit when I’m already staring down the barrel of mortality. I’m going for some YA pulp nonsense that I can clown on with my contemporaries. maybe the Twilight saga.
Respectfully, how do you know your mind will start to fail after your body? If you keep avoiding not reading that book, your odds of permanently depriving yourself of it continue to increase… Read the book, discuss it with your loved ones.
I feel like that’s such a personal choice as to what you’d like your final thoughts to be. I, “funny” enough, was just talking to a friend with terminal cancer about what they’re reading yesterday. It was “The Once and Future King,” a childhood favorite. Nostolgia aside, they love the sweet tragedy of the story, the silly and earnest warmth of it.
For me, maybe something like the Doadejing or Siddhartha, something reassuring that life had been good and that a peaceful end is the best outcome to a well-lived life.
Irvyn Yalom - Staring at the Sun
Look to Windward by Iain M Banks.
Tuesdays with Morrie. One of my favorite books.
The far side comic collection
Allegedly Shakespeare said not to see King Lear until you’re old. It’s pretty brutal. I recommend it sooner.
