Pippi is priceless!

Inspired by Astrid Lindgren's 100th birthday I decided to reread Pippi Longstocking after many years. This girl is priceless! And the book is absolutely timeless, it will make a wonderful reading when I am already 70, that is for sure. Reading the 3d part yesterday I just sat on the carpet with a cup of cofffee, bisquits and sandwiches behind. Mum, looking at me, said it was awfully bad manners, but I think it was just attempting to join the fun of the book, the dream of childhood freedom, like when Pippi, Tommy and Annika were eating muffins on the desert island with their hands when they did not have forks or had coffee on the old oak-tree in the garden. Not that I often or ever have snacks sitting on the floor, but yesterday was such a day thanks to Pippi.

When a child I wanted to be like her, sometimes I even put my feet on the pillow hiding my head under the blanket. And when I was 16 I used bottle post when we were camping a 1000km from home. With astonishing results! - I got a reply half a year later (sometimes I will tell the story in detail here!).

Pippy is wonderful. She's so artless, so good-natured, her logics is absolutely disarming. I remembered this for ages, ever since I read the book for the first time being 6: "Why should I give up watering my flowers this rainy October morning if I've been dreaming about it all night? Should I give it up because of some silly rain?". I love her being a sailor's daughter and having travelled a lot (being a sailor's daughter myself, though of course I am romanticising my dad a bit here). And she has a wonderfully kind heart, not conscious about it at all. She's a wonderful friend and there's never a boring moment with her. She's every hild's dream of being free from any restrictions come true!

On the other side, this book is wonderful for bringing kids up. Reading about Pippi's bad manners or her not ever wanting to go to school a child wouldn't think it exemplarly behaviour, and would never do this way.

It was a lovely rereading, the translation is a real masterpiece and the phrases I reread after many years just resonated in my head and I kept remembering what I thought and how I felt reading it when a 6- or 7-year old. The book is quite worn out, the pages are stained with chocolate and something else because I loved nibbling at something when reading, things seemed tastier with a book then! I relived the childhood joys and fears again and felt wonderfully comforted.

Pippi is a masterpiece. She's absolutely timeless. I'm looking forward to the times when I am reading it to my own kids :)

I think I have not mentioned it here yet (or have I?), but Astrid Lindgren loved "those wonderful books for girls" and said that Anne of Green gables was one of absolutely unforgettable favourites for her. I am wondering if a bit of spirit was inherited from anne together with a fiery hair done it two funny plaits.

Picture: this is how my book cover looks (it has stories about Karsson, Pippi and Emil under one cover). It was published to mark astrid lindgren's 80th birthday, so it is 20 years old now.