My new years resolution is to never grow up.
Okay, maybe I stole that from a leaf-clad cloud hopper, but no infringment was intended! Peter Pan was the first book I read for the book club, and it was so enjoyable, I have to comment, even though my tired essay-writing muscles are being given a rest until school starts again next week.
What I loved the best about this book is that it was so joyously written about children but meant for adults. What do I mean by that? The whole thing is overwrought with silly imaginings...completely nonsensical characters coming to compeletly nonsensical conclusions about completely nonsensical things...that make perfect sense. But such is the life of a child. Adulthood can bring with it a foggy mist that dims childhood thought. We just all assume we were always this smart, mature, etc. When we see kids doing seemingly crazy things, we tell ourselves that we never did that when we were a kid. Peter Pan lends to adults the opportunity to, first, remember what it was like to be a kid, and second, understand that in some peculiar way those seemingly left-field thought processes are, in fact, quite sensible.
Besides that, I loved the narration. It reminds me of those old Pluto cartoons. (Spring music plays) "Let us now kill a pirate." (Pretend camera zooms in on pirate ship.) "Skylights will do." (Skylights the pirate walks past camera.) "See the method which Hook uses?" (Hook kills Skylights.) "Such is the terrible man agaisnt whom Peter Pan is pitted. Who will win?" The whole story is just like playing one long make-believe game. I thoroughly loved it all, and it has officially been added to my "Books I must read my children" list.
As for new years resolutions, I decided not to make any this year. Instead, I set goals. Resolutions beg to be broken, so I decided not to use that word. I won't go into each one of the goals I set, but I will tell you that my husband has eaten a hot home-cooked meal almost every night this week. He doesn't know what to do with himself. I think I saw him cry into his potatoes this evening. Can't be sure. Let's just say, 2008 will be a great year for us.
Side note: I got to pick the January book club book. I chose "Enter Three Witches" by Caroline B. Cooney. It is a great retelling of Shakespeare's "Macbeth" so for any of you who haven't read Shakespeare, let this whet your appetite!
I agree about setting New Year's Resolutions, they are hard to keep, at least for me. I have a goal to cook "real" meals for dinner too. You can only eat spaghetti and frozin pizza so many times, right? Maybe we could share recipes. I don't mind cooking, I hate thinking of what to make.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad to find at least one person read it! I was beggining to feel left out. And I agree that it has a certain apeal to adults. I found myself agreeing with a lot of the reasons JM Barrie gave for things, even though I knew they weren't logical.
ReplyDeleteAs for the the homecooked meals, Hurrah! I'm very proud of you, but you may want to double check the reason he was crying...:)
I've been meaning to post some good recipies on my blog. Maybe we should start a recipe club too!
That would be awesome. Carma and i got together last week and planned two weeks worth of meals (mostly slow cooker ones, because we have work and school) Then we made a shopping list and got everything we needed for two weeks. And you know how sometimes you buy a regular size bag of something and only use half and the rest goes bad? Instead, we split our bags of salad and a few other things so that we'd only have what we needed and save a few bucks while we were at it. So far its worked out really great. So if we want to start a recipe club, I'm so in!
ReplyDeleteI'm in to, as long as they are relatively simple recipes. I don't have to many culinary arts skills at this point.
ReplyDelete