2019 reading challenge: a book that makes you feel nostalgic

[baronessekat]

Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children's Literature as an Adult by Bruce Handy

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I MIGHT go as far as 2.5 stars. But at 60% done, I actually debated stopping and moving to another book.

Mainly I am not 100% sure of what I was expecting from this book but I'm 95% sure I did not get it. I was expecting a much more joyous and nostalgic trip through children's books (both classic and modern). And while there were points where the author slightly touched on those emotions, I felt more like I was listening to a college thesis on the evolution of children's literature. While it was nice to have some background on the author and the world the book came from, this seemed to be much stronger in the history and less on the psychological and emotional pull of the books, especially as an adult either re-reading or reading them for the first time.

It felt like the author had a distinct bias against what was referred to as "girls' books". Now granted, the author is male, but as he was at times reading "girls' books" for the first time as an adult (Little Women, The Little House series), it still felt strongly biased against them. Where I heard the nostalgia in his voice and words where in books he deemed "boys' books" (The Narnia Series being the prime example).

I also found he used the word "peripatetic" a LOT. As in almost every chapter, often multiple times a chapter, when he could have found synonyms. It was like he had just learned that new SAT word and had to use is all the time.

As a book to take you on a nostalgic trip through your childhood reading lists, this feel flat. I would classify it more as a "microhistory".

All in all, all I can say was this book was "ok".



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Comments

[conuly]

I've known the word "peripatetic" for many years, and I confess, I've never had an opportunity to use it where "wandering" wasn't a better fit for what I meant. I can't even imagine how you cram it into a book on children's literature.

[baronessekat]

wandering would have worked better for a good chunk of the times he used it. He used it a lot when discussing the Little House books and several of the Narnia books. After a while I stopped noticing because it starting getting rather pretentious.

[conuly]

Okay, I suppose technically the Ingalls family was peripatetic, and Ma might've even known that word, but no.