In anticipation of a new Winnie the Pooh movie next year I have been re-reading A. A. Milne's classic tales from the Hundred Acre Woods. Someone jokingly asked me if I was returning to my childhood since I was immersing myself in a children's book. I have read many children's series as an adult and have found them to be entertaining and have a wealth of life lessons in them.
When people used to tell Milne how they loved his books he often told them he doubted they had yet read "the best one." When he was then asked to define it he said "For whom, then is the book intended? That is the trouble. Unless I can say, "For those, young or old, who like the things which I like," I find it difficult to answer. Is it a children's book? Well, what do we mean by that? Is The Wind in the Willows a children's book? Is Alice in Wonderland? Is Treasure Island? These are masterpieces which we read with pleasure as children, but with how much more pleasure when we are grown-up."
Like Mr. Milne, I believe I will continue to read books I enjoy with no thought to the audience they were originally written for. A good book, is a good book!
Reading again,
jené
P.S. In case you have never read the book Milne referred to, you can find an on-line copy of
Once On A Time below.
No comments:
Post a Comment