Last night I went into the boys' room to read to them. I took from the shelf The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis. They both complained of my choice. Basil said he had heard it before, to which explained that he had heard two of the Narnia books but not this one. Anselm said he was "too old for Narnia" and that he liked Greek gods and heros now. To that I said, "I'm 43 and still love Narnia, besides, I don't think you remember this book since it was a few years ago that you last heard it."
After the first page of the first chapter I stopped reading and asked, "Shall I stop?" Basil said "NO!" Anselm said, "No, this is good." At the end of the chapter, when I closed the book they begged me to keep reading. I read them another chapter tonight, again they begged me to keep reading when I had finished the chapter.
People are so funny. We think we know what we like and don't like. I wonder, how many good things have I passed by and not noticed because I thought I was "too old" or too serious, or too sophisticated?
11 hours ago
2 comments:
Nice. My kids are all too old to read to. Maybe I just need to read to myself and find my childhood again.
hm. nicely written. I remember a friend (who was doing his masters in literature at the time), anyway, telling me that 'sophisticated' did not always have the positive connotation it seems to now, and that in fact, it used to mean 'unnecessarily complicated'. I like that better.
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