One Down

The Secret Garden was great! I finished it during two days of traveling. I’ve heard that there is a movie too so I will have to check it out. I am glad however, that I did read the book first so that I was able to use my own brain to create the images in the book before I see what the movie creators saw in their mind.

It was almost as if I had read that book when I was kid based on the outlook on life it presents. Or at least who I am today really agrees with the story. I look forward to reading this one to Jonah for sure when he’s old enough to sit and listen to a book without pictures. I’d like for him to grow up believing that he will have more life if he surrounds himself with life. And that being outdoors and watching the plants and animals come to life and the season’s change is a very healthy thing to do. In our time of TV, computers, sports, and everything else we manage to use up our time doing, I really want our children to enjoy just going outside and playing for a few hours. Hopefully if I read this to them while they are young enough I can brainwash them into this belief.

There are many timeless things and timeless ideas and I think that even though this story was written so long ago, before there were all the distractions we face today, the idea Frances Hodgson Burnett presents still can apply to us today.

I’ve started Great Expectations now by Dickens and it looks like that will be a slightly slower read. It’s not quite as easy going as The Secret Garden but it has been enjoyable all the same. It makes me feel as if I have been transported back in time fifty years.

Looks like all the writers I enjoy seem to at least start out in England. Interesting. Maybe we should move . . .

GL