Yeah Jane, I agree with you. You read more classics than I do – so there’s plenty of cringe-worthy – but it’s best to leave classics as they are – I think. Glad to have you weighing in on this issue. And it feels great that it’s March now! We have a ton of snow at the moment but soon it will melt and the days are getting longer, woohoo! I can’t wait for spring. Enjoy your Colorado days.

Hi Heather, great hearing from you. That’s awesome about the snow in Utah. I’ve heard it’s been a banner year for snow down south when I went to my niece’s wedding in Colorado in January. Wow like Utah, parts of Colorado were having huge snow! Woohoo. Perfect for skiing. I hope you get to enjoy it. We have had so-so here. Off & on year.
I agree with you about the editing of old books. Hmm. I will stop by your site to see what’s up in reading world. Cheers.

I have a problem with editing existing works–I read a lot of classics, and there are a lot of things that make me cringe, but I think it is better to cringe and appreciate how the world and sensibilities have changed than to pretend that everyone, including favorite authors, didn’t have some issues that we as a society have working through or are trying to work through.

Better to have a disclaimer than to edit.

We have gotten so much snow in our mountains! I think Utah’s ski resorts have gotten the most in the U.S. so far or pretty close to it. It’s been insane. More to come for us this weekend.

Light Pirate has been on my radar. I love the cover.

Hi Stargazer, yeah these climate books are pretty much becoming reality, which is pretty daunting. And I have not heard of Enid Blyton (is that crazy?) but now I see from Wiki that her children’s books were/are hugely popular. I must try one. Even a BBC movie about her life with Helena Bonham Carter. I like finding these kinds of old books but I’m often aware when I read them that they where written in a different era with different mores and such. But I get the point that kids are impressionable readers — so maybe updated versions are okay.
We seem to be getting more snow coming in March than in Feb. LOL. Cheers!

Yeah Lark, I tend to agree with all you’re saying. I was surprised too … that they were allowed to change his words. I guess the company that owns his copyright was agreeable to the editing for the UK copies. Hmm. But since the backlash now they’re going to make 2 versions of the books, which seems crazy too. LoL.

I hadn’t heard about Roald Dahl’s children’s books, but I recently read about Enid Blyton’s books getting an overhaul (don’t know how well-known she is in the US, but she is a bestselling children’s author here in Europe). Anyway, I don’t like censure, but find the discussion a lot more nuanced, when it comes to books targeting young children, who are quite impressionable. Maybe the solution with two different versions isn’t so stupid after all?

I haven’t read many climate disaster books, but they might be quite scary, because they are not unrealistic at all!

I spent most of my childhood in Northern California (mixed in with Arizona, Hawaii, and Oceanside, California), but all my adult life in Southern California. I long for the green and delta in Northern California. But it’s probably safe to say I’m more Southern California now than I can claim Northern California.

Wendy is right–although I answer to LF too. 🙂

Wow LF (Wendy ? right), I didn’t realize that. For some reason, I thought you were more north. Pardon me. I grew up in Redlands with a little of the OC thrown in … so I’m biased to favor the south, LOL. I hope you enjoy it there.