- "Hmm! Books, you know, Charles, are like lobster shells, we surround ourselves with 'em, then we grow out of 'em and leave 'em behind, as evidence of our earlier stages of development."
- --Lord Peter Whimsey in The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club by Dorothy Sayers
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Biblio-evidence
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2 comments:
+JMJ+
Sed Contra:
I don't have the exact quote (as usual!), but I remember reading that C.S. Lewis never felt he had outgrown anything he had loved as a child. On the contrary, he still loved and read the fairytales which had been told to him in the nursery. The difference was that he had learned to love other books as well.
His point was that dropping one love for another is merely change, while keeping an early love even as one grows is real development.
Then again . . . there are lots of books I surrounded myself with as a teenager that I like to hope I've completely grown out of! =P Khalil Gibran's writings, for instance: so profound back then, so icky today! =S
Well, I think I rather agree with you and Lewis since I still have (and read with enjoyment) books from my childhood. Though to put Lord Peter in context, scanning the suspect's bookshelves part of his sleuthing because he was banking on a person's tendency not to chuck books relating to one's past enthusiasms, even when the interest in it had waned or even died.
Sorry to take so long to respond. I've been away (so to speak).
Merry Christmas!
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