George Fyler Townsend

1 down, 1,000 to go. Huh? What? What am I talking about? Well, you know those popular "1,001 x1 to x2 Before You Die" books? I'm tackling the x1=books/x2=read version, because hey, that's the hardest. Aesop's Fables was #1 in the first edition of the book, so that's where I've started. It's a smart choice, as the reading was light, and easy to motor through, pausing only when appreciating a choice one with an excellent moral lesson. The fact that the animals represent specific traits and aspects of humanity was not lost on me. My kids enjoyed some of the tales too, as did the strangers during my commute, staring at a man reading fairy tales.… (mere)

Tales with moral endings. Preparing those for the hard world. Each story has some familiar stories like Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing, and The Boy Who Cried Wolf. (Those are not the actual titles of the stories in the book) There are quite a few I did not know of like The Dolphin and The Lion which is the one that sticks with me the most.

The stories are never more than two pages long and while I got the moral of some others seemed over my head or maybe too old. I did not find much entertainment in reading this which is probably how the tales should be read not for entertainment but as stories read to warn us of dark side of life.… (mere)