There's all these books that people read growing up and they go and reflect on them. Such the Roald Dahl books, the CS Lewis stories, and so on and so forth. When I was young, I read Fear Street, by RL Stine. He was probably my favorite author at the time. I'm not saying I regret that, I just think I missed a lot of other things. I read James and the Giant Peach in elementary school, as well as Charlotte's Web, and some Mark Twain, but I think I missed a lot of the childhood classics.
And children's books haven't worn old on me. In fact, I'm reading one right now. Something I learned as a missionary is that yound kids are a lot smarter and retain a lot more information than us older people give them credit for. Sure, they're immature and bratty, but that's okay. They haven't developed a maturity, but they are smart. And someone who writes children's novels, if they are to be successful, can't be condescending. Sure, they may keep the plot development a little more simple, and stay away from sex and language, but they can still tell a wildly entertaining story, and often make a good point as they do it.
So, I'd like to catch up on all the authors I missed as a child, like Roald Dahl, and Beverly Cleary, because I can. I don't have to pull the macho trip that so many guys do and say that they're kid books or girl books. I can read these and decide if I like them, regardless of what my peers think. And that's the great thing about being out of school. You no longer have to worry about being cool or being made fun of anymore. Sure, people may still do it, but I just don't care.
I read this line in a Charles de Lint book where a father is explaining to his high school son that things will get better. The son asks when, and the father replies "the day after". The confused son asks, "the day after what?". "The day after graduation," his father replies. I remember starting community college a few months after graduating high school, and though some of the faces were the same, it was a completely different element. People didn't care about cliques and what was cool. They were there for the education. They were (more or less) serious now.
So, tagent aside, I want to read the kids books I missed to see what I was missing.
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2 comments:
Dude, I read R L Stinebut was a much bigger Christopher Pike fan. Maybe I should go back and read some of that stuff again. I read the classics too, but my love of creepy books began young.
This may be shocking, but I didn't read my first novel until I was in the 7th grade. Shocking...I know! So I missed out on a lot of those really good authors as a kid and have since developed a great love for them.
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