Will Hoover’s Reviews > The Complete Peanuts, 1965-1966 > Status Update

After finishing this volume, are you planning to continue reading towards 1967 and 1968? I'm curious, when you get to the years you read it as a child, will you suddenly feel a sense of "going back in time"? Around what age did you first encounter *Peanuts*? I'm currently reading the book *1984* because it's closer to my age.

I'm definitely going to continue reading The Collected Peanuts until I've read every single cartoon panel that Charles Schulz ever created for his timeless and immortal comic strip over the course of nearly 50 amazing years.

It's interesting that you should ask if reading Peanuts gives me that sense of "going back in time," because I tend to have that sort of experience with all sorts of classic media, from re-reading books and comics I enjoyed as a kid, to oft listening to all my favorite songs of yesteryear, to re-watching all the very best old movies and TV shows, etc. Because, let's face it, there's no time machine quite like good old fashioned nostalgia!

Interestingly enough however, I really wasn't into reading newspapers when I was growing up because I was born and raised in a really small, rural Missouri town, and getting a major paper like the Kansas City Star on a daily basis was usually a bit of a challenge. So if I did read Peanuts, it was when my father just happened to bring home the big Sunday edition of the KC Star or the St. Louis Gazette.

So for me, Peanuts was surprisingly less about the daily strip and much more about the classic animated holiday specials and the omnipresent and ever ubiquitous mega-merchandising of Snoopy, good ol' Charlie Brown, and company.

In other words, I mostly read Peanuts books that I checked out from the school or public library, and seriously, you couldn't open the annual Christmas catalog way back in the day without seeing all sorts of Peanuts merch, from apparel, to stuffed toys, to Snoopy snow cone making machines, etc.

At any rate, 1984 was a great year because Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and Star Trek III were released that summer, and 80s music was, and still is, just plain "totally awesome," and back then, I was still in high-school and all that. But then again, I still get a huge kick out of music from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, too!

Okay, my mother introduced (aka indoctrinated) me to/into 50s and 60s music, but despite having been extremely young, I still vividly remember hearing songs like The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, Seasons in the Sun, and Ballroom Blitz.

So I guess I'm "old" now. Older than you, anyway. Oh well. Father Time catches up with all of us eventually, you know. My GoodReads profile pic was taken in Dublin in 2018, but having always been rather "baby faced," I don't think I look all that different now. I guess I'll have to update it soon, but GoodReads guidelines about uploading selfies is actually a bit strict, you know (at least compared to Facebook or what have you), so that's why I've left that one up for so long. Because there are BOOKS in the background, see!

Lastly, sorry about the long reply. I don't post on ye olden Internet often, but when I do, I tend to be... well... let's call it... "thorough." Either way, thanks for the thoughtful question.