I'm re-reading a childhood favourite at the moment.

When I was a child, I loved to read. I read all sorts of children's books, and eventually started in on small children's novels. One of the first such novels, in fact, the first, was a book by Gerald Durrell called The Talking Parcel. Upon Googling the book I've found that it was also made into a film, but I've never seen it.

As a young boy I loved the adventure of the book. It seemed very long when I was a child, but now that I'm re-reading it I'm finding that it's actually a fairly short novel. It centres around a group of three children finding a talking parrot and helping him stop the Cockatrice from taking over Mythologia. As an adult it seems a little ludicrous, but as a child I thought it was absolutely marvellous. 

There's always a sense of trepidation when revisiting things from one's childhood. Will the experience of this thing as an adult diminish the memory of that thing as a child? Will it now seem silly when it then seemed amazing? You get a similar sense of apprehension when you're about to see a film based on a book you like.

It's been refreshing reading something so... innocent. It's a very enjoyable read, more so, I must say, than I had anticipated. Part of me had assumed that, upon reading this book as an adult, that I would find it wasn't actually all that good. I was mentally prepared to read the book and find it embarrassingly silly or... something, but I'm find that, especially with that expectation, the book is better than I had hoped! On that note, I think I may just have to sit in the shade of a tree outside and read a few pages!

I remain, reading pleasantly,

Morgan D