Calvin(o) and Hobbes

I received a marvelous gift from Scout the other day, and a great article arrived from the PenPal on the same day. Coincidence? Perhaps.

A smallish, very heavy box arrived for me and in it was the three-volume, 23-pound collection of all 3,160 Calvin and Hobbes strips that ran in newspapers between November 18, 1985 and January 1, 1996 by Bill Watterson, local resident of nearby Chagrin Falls..

Such fond memories of Calvin. When each new book came out, I would get one for the PenPal's Lil'Sis and draw a cartoon inscription on the cover page for her.

Then, I get an article about the great Italo Calvino, the author of one of my all-time favorite books. This coincides with my picking up Hermit In Paris, a collection of his autobiographical writings originally published in 1994, and translated to English in 2003.

In the end, it all comes down to reading, itself for yourself. Great literature or comic strips -doesn't matter. As Calvino said:

I can never sufficiently highly recommend the direct reading of the text itself, leaving aside the critical biography, commentaries, and interpretations as much as possible. . .