Writing and literature are thought to have been first developed between the 7th and 4th millenium BC. Although, since the very existence of writing, a good number of methods have been employed in keeping records such as writing on clay, silk and even on coffins.

Books, a set of printed sheets of paper that are held together inside a cover, as defined by The Mirriam-Webster Dictionary, have however taken over all other crude method of writing and here's a list of some books that way older than everyone alive on planet earth.

1. Diamond Sutra, May 11, 868

Diamond Sutra, which is over 1,100 years old, a Chinese copy of the  at the British Library is one of the most intriguing documents in the world.

The Diamond Sutra, a Sanskrit text translated into Chinese, was one of 40,000 scrolls and documents hidden in “The Cave of a Thousand Buddhas,” a secret library, when the area was threatened by a neighbouring community.

2. Cuthbert Gospel, 7–8th century

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The earliest intact European book which is about 1,300 years old is a pocket gospel book buried with St. Cuthbert in 698. It was recovered from his grave in 1104. The book is famous for possessing a beautiful red leather cover.

Cuthbert Gospel is a copy of the Gospel of St. John, thought to have been produced in northeastern England sometime during the seventh century.

3. Dead Sea Scrolls, 2nd century BCE–1st century CE

Dead sea scrolls is an ancient Hebrew scrolls accidentally discovered in 1947 by a Bedouin boy in Israel's Judean Desert. The scroll is a collection of 972 manuscripts found in a series of 12 caves in Qumran in the West Bank written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek.

4. Regula Sancti Benedicti (The Rule of St Benedict), 8th century

The Rule of St Benedict is the earliest surviving manuscript of the Rule of Saint Benedict of Nursia. In Latin, the Regula Sancti Benedicti, the rule became a standard of monasticism.

The Rule is thought to have been written in about 540 AD, when Benedict was the abbot of the Abbey of Monte Cassino3, about eighty miles south of Rome.

5. Garima Gospels, 390–570

Garima Gospels are two illuminated Ge'ez language Gospel Books, of which Garima 2,

The first is notable for being the oldest book in the world and is believed to be "the most ancient Christian manuscript decorated with paintings."

The Garima Gospels are still stored in the Abba Garima Monastery in Ethiopia, where they were most likely written.