prenatal literacy

An unexpected benefit of prenatal communication is that I'm finally reading famous children's books I've never read before. I only knew The Wizard of Oz from the movie, seen annually on TV throughout the 1970s, and I only knew Alice in Wonderland from the Disney animated feature. And, like everyone else, I've encountered dozens of spoofs of both. They are part of our cultural bloodstream, however few of us have read the originals.

First of all, I knew there were plenty of book sequels in the land of Oz, but I didn't realize that the movie ends the story about two thirds into the first book. Second, I could have sworn I'd read Alice in Wonderland several years ago when I was testing out a RocketBook (ancient ebook reader) but I don't remember a good half of what I'm reading right now. Finally, despite its reputation among nerdy professors, geeky programmers, and other paragons of the yes-brains-no-clue set, I had no idea how fun and how funny Alice would turn out to be. Or rather, I did have some idea and was still pleasantly surprised.

- papa