Writer's Block: Timeless tales

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This is kind of an old question at this point, but I figure it would be appropriate for me to answer it. Like some other people who answered this, my first favorites were the Winnie-the-Pooh books. I'm told I could first read at the age of three, and while I can't personally remember this, I guess it's true. And yes, the first stories I read were Pooh stories. I also wrote some of my own, although I don't think I fully grasped the style. One story that I came up with before the age of five (I think I drew the pictures, but one of my parents wrote in the words that I dictated) involves Pooh driving to the North Pole in a Volkswagen Rabbit to go grocery shopping. I had somewhat of an obsession with the Rabbit at that point, not because I ever rode in one (I didn't), but I think I just liked that there was a car with the name of one of the Pooh characters, not to mention the rabbit on the back of the car. I think Volkswagen actually stopped making Rabbits for most of my life, although I believe they're around again now. Hey, since it's a German car, how come it's not called a "Hase"?

Later, I really got into the Alice books, and read them many times. My grandmother owned The Annotated Alice, and that was a help not only at making me a fan of annotated books in general, but because it explained a lot of the Victorian English terms that I initially didn't understand. I still enjoyed the book even before knowing them, though, so take that, L. Ron Hubbard!

I think I got into the Chronicles of Narnia when I was about nine, on a suggestion from my great-aunt. It was also around that time that I started reading The Hobbit, although it was a few years before I'd finish it. Same way with Lord of the Rings, actually. I enjoyed them, but as much as I liked Tolkien's universe, the style wasn't much of a page-turner for me. And I think it was due to a combination of The Annotated Alice and a book on holidays that I knew there were multiple Oz books. I was eleven when I read The Wizard of Oz, and not only did I finish it quickly, but I really got into the series over the next few years.

I still read a fair number of books that are classified as Children's or Young Adult, and not just Harry Potter. A lot of the time, I think the recommended age level is a marketing decision, and not always based on the actual contents or writing style, so why not? It is a little confusing in bookstores, though, because I'll end up looking for the same thing in several different sections. How am I supposed to know whether Borders considers Diana Wynne Jones to be Children's, Young Adult, or just plain Fantasy? Actually, I went there last week, and they had one of the Chrestomanci books in Fantasy and another in Young Adult. Oh, you bookstores and your arbitrary shelving! It reminds me of how the music store near my college dorm put Moxy Früvous' You Will Go to the Moon in Alternative, but their Bargainville in Pop. I guess it's kind of silly to even shop at physical book and music stores anymore, since just about everything is cheaper online, but there's something about the physical stores that I find more enjoyable.

bethje and I finally got around to watching last Sunday's Simpsons, American Dad, and Bob's Burgers (Family Guy was a rerun). I think the Simpsons episode did a good job of parodying eighties sitcoms, and Bart's attempt to sell nuclear secrets to China for a minibike was an interesting twist. I noticed quite a few jokes that I think were really stretched out, though, like the bit with the initials on the vans and the ending in general. Overall, though, I think it worked. I'm kind of surprised by the joke about the World Trade Center address, not because I found it offensive, but because I have to suspect someone still would (or at least pretend to be in order to generate publicity).