Here it is folks, my first book completed for Kailana’s Four-legged Friends Challenge. I know that I have already posted once today, but this being Charlie’s birthday I find it the most opportune time to review a book read in honor of him.
Peanuts has been a favorite of mine for as far back as my memory goes. I spent many an hour drawing pictures of Snoopy and Woodstock and the doghouse. Needless to say I was thrilled several years ago when Fantagraphics announced that they were going to produce the entire run of Peanuts strips from start to finish, a total of 25 volumes in all.
One of the many reasons I find Peanuts to be appealing even after all these years is that there is something in their that touches on almost every aspect of life. Charles Schulz created works that are timeless in their message and nearly timeless in their delivery. You can read them and feel nostalgic and at the same time see universal angst and universal truths that are still very valid parts of our lives today. There is a relevance to Schulz work that I find most appealing.
This next one spoke to me, as it should to Chris, Stephanie, Bellezza, and anyone else who is in the helping people profession:
This volume in particular turned out to be a favorite as it contains many of the strips that found their way into the Charlie Brown Christmas Special that so many of us know and have loved over the years. These two-year volumes are great as you get to experience each of the holiday seasons, Peanuts-style, twice in one book.
What I take most from reading Peanuts, however, is the connection it gives me with my childhood. I remember spending quite a bit of time either in the library reading Peanuts or checking volumes out of the library.
(For all of you librarians out there!)
The above was the end result of several days worth of strips exploring Linus’ anxiety about going to the Public Library. That is another thing that thrills me about Peanuts, the running gags and occasional storylines that repeat throughout the year.
And then there is Snoopy. You cannot help but get a warm feeling inside when you read about Snoopy’s antics and when there are those moments of genuine love and affection between charctes. It is a real treat. Charles Schulz explores the nature of a boy and his best friend to great effect amongst these pages. It takes me awhile to read through these volumes, as they are quite large. But thus far I have not been disappointed as every volume has its own wonders.
Thank you again Kailana for holding this challenge which has become such a great way to honor my pet Charlie and our departed pet Razz. I still chuckle out loud when I read these strips even after all these years of being exposed to the material. I highly recommend these beautiful volumes celebrating the legacy of Charles M. Schulz.
I look forward to delving into the next volume in the series.
This has been a:
review!
I love that picture of Charlie! That’s the perfect button for this challenge. His personality shines in his pictures. He’s one of those dogs that you feel like you know just by seeing pictures.
I’ve was such a big Peanuts fan when I was a little kid and I used to cut out the comic strip every day. Then I fell away from it for awhile and now I find myself going back to it and looking at them in a whole new light. Like you said, Schultz really touched on every aspect of life with Peanuts and they truly are timeless. I watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special on TV last night and that’s one that I’ll just never get sick of! Great review, Carl…I love the presentation of these books. I’ve seen them and I love the covers and the colors that they’ve used.
Did you know there was a biography of Charles circulating around? I think it came out in October. I have it on my wish list. I can’t remember the title right now! I love Peanuts, so I am interested to read more about the man behind them. There could be other biographies already, I just remember reading about that one. I have a set of Peanut comics, so now of course I want to dig them out… I haven’t undertaken collecting them all, but it would be something I would enjoy. I never even thought of Peanuts for my own challenge, go me! But, I have all of Calvin and Hobbes and I am starting to think this is the perfect excuse to read them all…. Thanks for the idea!
Kailana: That is funny, because I have the really nice collected version of Calvin and Hobbes, the 3 volume set, and I have only read the first volume. I was actually thinking of reading at least one of those for the challenge since, of course, Hobbes is real! Or is he? I’m almost finished with another volume of Peanuts and that may be next! I heard about that bio and I believe it talks about how he suffered from depression. Which should be obvious because of the cartoons.
Chris: They really are doing a fantastic job with these books. I love the colors as well. I have 6 or 7 of the volumes already and I can just envision how great the will look on a shelf together when all 25 volumes are out.
This was such a wonderful post! One of those ones that just leaves you smiling for hours. We just watched a Charlie Brown Christmas last night, and it still has me smiling, too…
I can’t wait to watch that one, Debi. I was in such a Christmas-y mood last night after opening a gift that we watched A Christmas Story. I figured that by watching it now I could enjoy it more than once this season as we will watch it again with family during Christmas.
Great review! Peanuts just reminds me so much of my childhood. Chris, I also cut out some of the Peanuts strips as a child. As an adult now I love getting to watch the Charlie Brown specials with my kids. I have the first two books in this series and although I’m still reading volume one I will add my recommendation to them as well to all Peanuts fans.
What a wonderful challange Kailana!
A Christmas story has been shown here already.. it’s too funny to me to see them as little kids and I know “Flick”, and have seen two others with him all grown up!
I like Calvin and Hobbs too!
The more you talk of your books the more I KNOW you NEED a room to be a LIBRARY!
what a wonderful collection! very cool!
snoopy is an amazing character – he’s so wonderfully enigmatic!
“dear fatty” hahahahaha 🙂
Deslily: I definitely do need a library. When Tori moves out I think that is what we need to do with her room rather than converting it to a spare bedroom (sorry mom and dad…of course you’ll have moved here by then so it won’t matter!!!)
Carl,Tori will need a bedroom for her husband and ten children when they come home for a visit! How about the garage(remodeled, of course) and build on a new garage?
I just heard a Snoopy song on the mall and thought of you. Didn’t you have a Snoopy bank or something like that? I remember tons of pictures of the Snoop that you drew and all your Snoopy books.
Love Charlie’s hat -the way he leaps so high he could pull Santa’s sleigh!!
They can get a hotel!
I figure if we remodel the garage for our master bedroom then we could use one room for the library and one for a home theatre! 😉
Yep, Jason and I had that HUGE Snoopy bank that we put pennies in for years. Wonder when that ‘disappeared’, the old faded thing. I’d love to have it now just for nostalgia’s sake.
“One of the many reasons I find Peanuts to be appealing even after all these years is that there is something in their that touches on almost every aspect of life”
I completely agree, and it’s one of the reasons why I love it too.
We had the 25th anniversary volume, which I have lots of fond memories of. (I suppose my parents still have it.)
I believe I have that one as well, Kicking.
I love Peanuts; I had a whole collection of the books in my childhood; my grandmother would bring them to me. I can’t bring myself to read the Schultz biography because I heard it really upset his family…I think I’d rather enjoy the cartoons and just remember him that way. That is awesome that they did a 25th anniversary volume; I want it!
There’s no way I’m buying it either. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that there was probably some depression there, but I don’t buy that he was some super depressed mess. His strips, even in their most down times, are filled with fun and laughter and, most importantly, hope. You could take anyone’s life and pinpoint just one part of it and build a case study out of their life on that one aspect and spin anything anyway you want to spin it. That fact alone has me saying, “no thanks” to the whole thing. And, for the sake of argument, let’s say he was extremely, extremely depressed all his life. Do I need to know that? What does that add to my life or my love of his work? Nothing, nothing at all. It is always easy to talk about someone after they are dead. He gave interviews, etc. while he was alive. That and his work tell me all I need to know about the guy.
My feelings exactly. Besides, I would never have thought about case management without Lucy and her booth!
I love the old Peanuts comics strips. I have a few of the shorter, gift books, but the collection is very tempting! I remember, oh, maybe back in 1968, I had a Peanuts calendar that I absolutely loved. I remember one page in particular – Lucy is quoted to say, It’s Hard Work Being Crabby. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. BTW, do you know there’s a bio on Schultz? It just came out a month or so ago. Might be an interesting read.
That is funny that you mention the bio, Les. I was just criticizing the idea of it in the comments above.
The booth certainly has a deeper meaning for those of us in the mental health field, Catherine! 🙂
Ah, I should’ve finished reading all the comments, but Miss Annie interrupted my blog-time with a potty call, so we romped around in the snow last night. Brrrrr! Anyhow, I hadn’t heard about Schultz’s depression, although I did hear some negative remarks about some infidelity. Think I’ll skip that and stick with my daily Peanuts via email.
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