Listening to The Readers podcast episode about children's classics reminded me of when I reread the first book in the Nancy Drew series (The Secret of the Old Clock) last year. I had bought a reprinted edition a few years ago and had never gotten around to reading it. I LOVED the Nancy Drew series when I was a girl. I loved that it was a smart young woman who solved mysteries. I loved the stories that featured hidden passageways. I had such fond memories of the series.
And then I reread the first book in the series. Bad idea. As an adult, the book just didn't stand up to my childhood fascination. The plot was unrealistic. I found it so different from my remembered expectations and so unpalatable to my adult mind that I couldn't even finish it. And that's part of what the episode of The Readers is about: how rereading childhood favourites can be detrimental to your love of the books. I have also found this to be so with beloved childhood television shows. They just don't stand up to the test of adulthood. And I so wish that were not the case.
Read on,
Paula
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