Books as character tests

The book is a test of character ... When you sit down to it, don't be so ridiculous as to suppose that you are sitting in judgment on my taste, or on the art of Kenneth Grahame. You are merely sitting in judgment on yourself.

A.A. Milne, introduction to The Wind in the Willows

Last Monday I didn't suppose this would turn into A.A. Milne Week at Wordmanship, but here we are  with my third straight post about Milne, and I am still not half way through Ann Thwaite's book Goodbye Christopher Robin: A.A. Milne and the Making of Winnie-the-Pooh.

Milne was a big fan of The Wind in the Willows long before he wrote his Winnie-the-Pooh books, which to his own surprise, as much as anyone's, supplanted Kenneth Grahame's book as the most popular children's literature of the 20th century. Milne liked Grahame's book so much, in fact, that, as the above quotation indicates, he viewed it as a test of character. If you like it, you are OK. If not, maybe there is something wrong with you.

This reminds me of something Pamela Paul writes in her book My Life with Bob: "What someone reads gives you a sense of who they are. So if you really don't like someone's books, chances are you probably won't like them either." She goes on to tell how she broke up with a boyfriend because, in part, he liked George MacDonald Fraser's Flashman Papers novels and she didn't.

I agree with the first part of Paul's statement, that what people read reveals something about who they are. The second part gives me difficulty, however, except perhaps in extreme cases where one person reads, say, racist literature or books about how to build bombs. These aren't the kinds of people I would want to hang out with. But a person who reads Russian literature should be able to be friends with, or even married to, someone who favors Harlequin romances. My wife likes those Chicken Soup books; I don't. As long as we keep our books segregated, we can get along just fine.

Books are not like movies and music, media best enjoyed as a social activity. Reading, excepting perhaps when you want to listen to a book in the car, is a private activity, a relationship involving just you and the author. Spouses, friends or colleagues shouldn't care what you are reading.

Yet, getting back to Milne's comment, there are some books that make such an impact on us that we cannot imagine they do not affect others in the same way. After all these years of marriage I am still shocked and disappointed when Linda cannot read more than 50 pages of a book I recommend before giving it up. It is hardly grounds for divorce, however.

While in college I was so smitten with Franny and Zooey that I ran out and bought a copy for my girlfriend. She broke up with me soon after, but it had nothing to do with J.D. Salinger. Or did it?