I'm mainly interested in making complicated redstone contraptions and farms, and for that the best version is 1.12.2. That version has an incredibly interesting system of glitches that give it way more depth and way more stuff to do than any 1.13+ version.
For a technical minecraft playstyle the golden age ranges from 1.8 to 1.12.2. In 1.8 they introduced slime block flying machines, which are very important. After 1.12.2 they made a lot of changes that make the game less complex while also reducing server performance.
Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol I'm a huge fan of 19th century Russian literature, and that is probably the oldest book I've read in that genre.
Other than that, I think Don Quixote is super fun to read at the start, but it drags on too long to be enjoyable all the way through. But that's the oldest book out of which I got a lot of enjoyment.