Readings: Essays & Literary Entertainments by Michael Dirda

Author:Michael Dirda [Dirda, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780393324891
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2000-09-30T16:00:00+00:00

Childhood's End

"Too many books," said my Beloved Spouse. Not for the first time, of course, but now she turned her baleful gaze upon piles of Dr. Seuss and Gail Gibbons and James Stevenson, five or six Commander Toads and Magic School Buses, several dozen paperbacks about shy forest creatures, dinosaurs, and outer space.

"You," said my gentle dove, "I have given up on. You're hopeless. But our children, my children, will not have their rooms overrun by old books they no longer need. Isn't it enough that I have to put up with these rodents?" added my sweetest one, pointing to the gerbil and the frog. "And there must be enough loose Legos around here to build an addition to this house—which we sorely need, by the way." Naturally, I expostulated.

"Boopsie-woopsie, you're just not used to boys. They need a certain amount of clutter, just to feel relaxed. Probably something to do with the X

chromosome," I added, with a thoughtful, scientific air. Wrong approach.

Terribly wrong. "That's the Y chromosome, you nitwit! I want these shelves reorganized, and I want it done now."

"But, light of my life, there are a lot of treasures here." "Don't give me that. They're all treasures to you. Nobody in this household is still reading Hop on Pop or The Berenstain Bears. We're beyond primers."

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.