I feel like I'm one of the few people who didn't actually grow up with Winnie the Pooh. I didn't watch the cartoon series or the movies. I didn't read the books other than the ones printed by Disney.

Oddly enough I did write some Winnie the Pooh stories when I was a kid, but those have long since been forgotten.

Because of this, I don't think I can appreciate these stories like others. While I did find them charming, some of the stories were somewhat simple and dull, characteristics that alienated me from this world in the first place. The illustrations help keep the stories from becoming entirely bland, but I still found myself slugging through multiple spots.

Don't get me wrong, I love these kinds of stories that play off the imagination of a child. But really this imagination has all the appeal of a piece of white bread. It'll fill you, but it won't exactly be an exciting experience.

Also, some things I was surprised to see in this book include child abduction, ditching someone in the woods so they could learn a lesson and Eeyore's sass.

I never knew a donkey could be so passive aggressive.

Finally, I can say that I have read this book and thoroughly enjoyed it. Its humor was exactly my speed: dry, random, and witty.

I was surprised at how quick a read it was, it flowed very quickly and before I knew it I was done. In a way, it is a very difficult book to talk about, at least for me. Did I like the characters? Yes. Marvin the depressed robot was probably my favorite. Did I enjoy the story? Yes and I'm probably going to check out the sequels at some point. The book just had this weird flow and I was always trapped in the current. It wasn't a raging rapid...more like a water park lazy river you can't really get out of since you're having such a great time.