Saturday, February 5, 2011

Should Girls Read Boy's Literature...?

Should they? Or is that detrimental to femininity?


Here's a really excellent article on a subject that we've talked over quite a bit around here...
Growing up, I always read 'boys' books. Henty was definitely one of my favorite authors, but so was Stevenson, and on down the list. This used to bother me quite a bit, because I didn't like to be classified as a 'tomboy', but well... I still like to play outside. ;)
Anyhow... here's the article - let me know what you think. It's good to see that two of the most religious and feminine women I know share the same opinion, and I believe there's a lot of wisdom in these lines...


"People often ask us to name the most important books we’ve read — books that
have influenced our thinking the most. Our inclination is to list the books that
educated and informed our already-matured minds (more impressive titles by
well-respected thinkers, theologians and historians).
But the truth is that the books that have likely had the strongest effect on who we have become were
actually the books we read as children...
Blessings!

2 comments:

Patrizia said...

Good stuff, Kate. My girls like to read books that have to do with the gentleman being the heros. I dont think it has done anything to their behavior, I think though, it has given them a proper perspective of men. Reading these sort of books has not made them rough, they are very feminine & girly. I think they look up to men & value them. So from our experience, I would say it had a positive outcome.

good post :D

Anonymous said...

I didn't read the whole article in depth, but from what I could tell good points were made. Some I had never thought of before! That to say, I don't think there's anything wrong with reading wholesome books that are aimed at boys/young men such as Henty or Horatio Alger Jr.

I love Henty as well! I love reading the high morals of the heroes. One thing I've noticed is that there are very few older books written for girls that have the same high values as ones for boys. Just an observation I've made.

Thanks for posting this, Kate! :-)
Lady Amanda