@books
#SwellBookClub #books #BookReview #AuthorInterview 📚
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 3:23
Unpopular Opinion: The Little Prince isn't that great 🤷🏼
And so looking back at it now, one can only appreciate it within context, but I don't know if that's true because I know folks who talk about this book as being one of their favorite books, and I just don't get it. I want to be convinced. Did you love this book? If so, why explain it to me? Or maybe you're like me and you really think it's kind of an overrated story
Hey, Bowie, you broke my heart with that assessment. This is one of the books that I did enjoy. I read it a long time back, and I think the primary reason I liked it was because of its imagination and up another reason I realized it was the author I actually knew of the author as an aviator first and as a writer second. When I was growing up as a kid, I used to love everything to do with airplanes
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 2:42
But you sharing the context of what you brought to the reading of this book, I think is really important because I would say the most interesting thing for me in finally reading The Little prints is that I went and ended up doing more reading about the author, which I'm probably going to say his name wrong, but Antwon des Saint Exuberi, I can't do a French accent, so someone who can say the author's name correctly with the proper French pronunciation would be wonderful
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
And I think part of the whole hype with The Little Prince is that when you do that when you revisit it as an adult, you're remembering the first time you read it as a child and it's unavoidably, already bundled up and entangled with your memories with your childhood memories. If they were good other bring those back. If they were bad, then most likely the Little Prince traveling from planet to planet was sort of an escape for you as a child
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 0:58
But because I have some sort of nostalgic relationship or first encounter with it that was really special to me. It continues to impact how I read the book. I'll so thank you for pronouncing the author's name for me. Since I did not get that correctly at all, it was very lovely hearing you say it with a proper French accent, so thank you
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 2:10
And I think you're right that this book is an invitation in some ways, back to childhood and being able to see things in a different way that is often obscured once we get to adulthood and listening to your perspective reminded me that one of the things I did actually appreciate about the story was the different perspectives or views on certain kinds of people and the way the world works due to capitalism and various identities one can have because of the job they have or the gender they are
And so it made me think about how that book really influenced me to continue to be the person I want to be. And so the books, the authors, his life is kind of like a book. He died for a flight crash. I think that book is kind of his internal mirror, what kind of life he wanted to choose. So I feel for me that book has so many parts, it can encourage me to stay as authentic as I am state other values
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 0:57
I loved hearing about your experience with this book not only when you were younger, but also more recently when you reread it. And I have to agree that knowing about the author's life and the context of of the book makes it a lot more powerful and interesting. As soon as I finished reading the book, I immediately wanted to read more about it and about the writer because I wanted to understand why it's been such a popular book. And it was super interesting to learn about