I was thinking this while reading The Canterbury Tales, which isn’t exactly the oldest I’ve read (I think that goes to Homer)
But The Canterbury Tales is just so delightful! Getting into the flow of the rhyming prose is very fun to read (I’ve just been reading the Penguin Classics Coghill translation which is fantastic)
I’ve already watched the Pasolini adaptation but I’m definitely going to revisit once I finish the book.
Dunno if you’d count it as a book but the Epic of Gilgamesh is one of my all time favorite stories that I regularly go back to. Also, predates Homer by a long shot.
Beowulf fucking slaps
Beowulf
As a kid, the grandmother of one of my best friends used to read it to us at night in a cabin in Door County WI. She read it in the Old English version. Left a very lasting impression on me and I have read itany times since.
Probably something by Jane Austen? Actually technically Shakespeare but that was for school so it doesn’t really count.
Beowulf
Not the oldest I’ve read, but the oldest I’ve properly enjoyed is Jane Eyre (and it happens to be my fave of all time too)