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A review by carriedoodledoo
Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder
5.0
Have you ever had a book take you out of yourself? Like a fast zoom-in closeup on the screen, all of a sudden you get shaken awake and go "wait a minute..." Sometimes it's in a good way, sometimes it's in a bad way. This was in the best of ways.
I was reading "Farmer Boy" when I realized these people worked ALL the time. Everything they did was productive, even the recreation! Nowadays we have unprecedented amounts of leisure time, which we fill with endeavors of little use. I won't try to justify my novel-reading and review-writing as being anything more than what they are--a largely time-wasting hobby that mostly serves just to inflate my own ego. Now, that doesn't mean I'll stop--it's 2023 and I do have a dishwasher and washing machine, after all--but I did feel convicted enough to sit up, brush the potato chip crumbs off my front and go do housework while the baby finished his nap.
I think this may be my favorite "Little House" book, especially as an adult. (As a romantic child, I really loved "These Happy Golden Years"). The idea of nearly-self-sufficient living off the land warms the cockles of my heart, hard work notwithstanding. The descriptions of Mother weaving, in the kitchen, or doing any of the million household tasks necessary for the comfort and care of her family in the coming year convicted me of my own lackadaisical approach to housework. Good heavens, I have so much STUFF!
I'm beginning to see how my own mother arrived at her philosophy of housekeeping--she keeps a spick-and-span house, garden, animals when she is in a house with enough land, and she one time made a comment to me about how reading was sometimes a waste of time. At the time, I gasped--sacrilege! But now I see what she means. Reading can be very educational or harmless recreation, and people who say it's not as important are often seen as illiterate hicks, a la Gaston. But on the other hand--will reading a book make homemade dinner every night, weed the garden, milk the cow, can the produce, or sew sturdy clothing for your family? We only have so much time in the day, after all.
Balance in everything. I rather think I will try to read fewer books next year. (We shall see if I succeed). And probably use more audiobooks!
About this edition: the best part was the deckle edges. There were no illustrations, but there was a foreword by Ree Drummond, which I think was a pretty crummy tradeoff.
I was reading "Farmer Boy" when I realized these people worked ALL the time. Everything they did was productive, even the recreation! Nowadays we have unprecedented amounts of leisure time, which we fill with endeavors of little use. I won't try to justify my novel-reading and review-writing as being anything more than what they are--a largely time-wasting hobby that mostly serves just to inflate my own ego. Now, that doesn't mean I'll stop--it's 2023 and I do have a dishwasher and washing machine, after all--but I did feel convicted enough to sit up, brush the potato chip crumbs off my front and go do housework while the baby finished his nap.
I think this may be my favorite "Little House" book, especially as an adult. (As a romantic child, I really loved "These Happy Golden Years"). The idea of nearly-self-sufficient living off the land warms the cockles of my heart, hard work notwithstanding. The descriptions of Mother weaving, in the kitchen, or doing any of the million household tasks necessary for the comfort and care of her family in the coming year convicted me of my own lackadaisical approach to housework. Good heavens, I have so much STUFF!
I'm beginning to see how my own mother arrived at her philosophy of housekeeping--she keeps a spick-and-span house, garden, animals when she is in a house with enough land, and she one time made a comment to me about how reading was sometimes a waste of time. At the time, I gasped--sacrilege! But now I see what she means. Reading can be very educational or harmless recreation, and people who say it's not as important are often seen as illiterate hicks, a la Gaston. But on the other hand--will reading a book make homemade dinner every night, weed the garden, milk the cow, can the produce, or sew sturdy clothing for your family? We only have so much time in the day, after all.
Balance in everything. I rather think I will try to read fewer books next year. (We shall see if I succeed). And probably use more audiobooks!
About this edition: the best part was the deckle edges. There were no illustrations, but there was a foreword by Ree Drummond, which I think was a pretty crummy tradeoff.