Well, I just got home from seeing The Odyssey. I have a general rule that I don’t watch TV or movies of books that I plan on reading. I read The Odyssey 40 years ago and had no intention of reading it again, but I was really looking forward to the movie. I really enjoyed it, but was surprised at my reaction as the credits started to roll. I suddenly found myself with an overwhelming urge to read both The Odyssey and The Iliad, which I had never even considered reading again. In fact, I think this may be the only movie I have watched based on a book that gave me this urge. I mean, not even The Lord of the Rings made me feel this way. I immediately tried to check out Emily Wilson’s translation, but the wait was 13 weeks. I knew this wasn’t going to work. I drove over to Barnes & Noble, but they didn’t have the Wilson translation in stock because they'd sold out. Color me not surprised. I ended up buying it as an ebook. I noticed that the little controversy between Wilson and Nolan hasn’t hurt her book sales. She is selling a bunch of Paperbacks and ebooks. I will probably start reading it tonight (despite already reading two other books).

How about you, Boundlings? Has there ever been a TV show or movie that made you immediately rush out and buy the book?

I just looked up James Turrell and think his installations are pretty fascinating! I'm wondering why the author decided to include his art. Has anyone seen one of his installations in person? Would love to know what you think!

As a dad of two under two, something no one ever told me or I never thought would happen would be rediscovering the absolute joy of picture books that I hadn't had since I was a little kid. Our local library and librarians are wonderful - they were some of the first people to welcome us to our new town, and are now very close personal friends of ours - and seeing our two-year-old go exploring through the shelves to find books with one of them always puts an immense smile on my face. But not only that, I also have found myself looking for picture books I grew up with to read to him. I've slowly been collecting picture books I had when I was little: Weslandia, The Bunyans, Thunder Rose, Brambly Hedge to name a few. Our little guy loves the Knight Owl books especially, and anything with chickens.

My wife teases me because the picture books I tend to get at the library or buy at our local bookstore are very text heavy and our little guy isn't old enough to have the stamina to sit through the longer ones, but it's the anticipation of knowing that in a year or two when he's older, I am going to get to sit down and read him books that my parents read to me when I was his age. I remember the first time I read him Miss Rumphius, I started bawling as I got to the end of the book, cause I had a flashback to my mom reading it to me when I was maybe five or six.

I am curious, what picture books do you all remember reading a lot when you were little (if you can), and if you got kiddos, what books have you read with them?