The Book I have Owned The Longest and The Oldest Book I Own.

The book I have owned the longest is the Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe.   I can't remember when or where it was bought, but my maiden name is on the first page.   I have been married over twenty-seven years so I'm guessing I have had it for about twenty-eight years. 

My favorite in the book is the detective story "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" originally published in  1841 and considered the first detective story written in English.  Detective Fiction is a specific genre that consists of a crime or puzzle that needs solving, an investigator who can be professional or amateur, clear or unclear pertinent clues, and a denoment or gathering together of relevant facts that lead to the ultimate solving of the mystery.  My favorite detective is Sherlock Holmes who is a

self-taught expert in crime detection.  Holmes and many other fictional investigators sometimes have an assistant/sidekick, such as the conventional Dr. Watson.   Some other detective fiction authors are Walter Mosley, Ian Rankin, Barbara Neely, Sue Grafton, Agatha Christie, and Raymond Chandler.

When my son was a teenager he wouldn't read.  He was finally pulled in by Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins series.  Detective fiction is probably popular because people find it stimulating  to try to solve the mystery along with the detective. 

The oldest book I own is The Little White Bird by J.M. Barrie.  It was published by Scribner in 1903.  I haven't read it yet, but I picked it up at a yard sale because it was written by the author of Peter Pan.