I Miss The Bunnies

The other day, I finished reading Watership Down. I'd always heard of it spoken of as one of those books that everyone should read, but I'd never gotten around to it. I knew it involved rabbits, but I didn't know exactly how, and I actually though that Watership Down meant that there was a Watership, and that it was Down somewhere. More of a sci-fi angle. Not at all. But it was a truly great book, and I would recommend it to everyone. It's a harrowing adventure story that taps into something deep within us all. It's archetypal... you could easily switch out the rabbits for people or aliens or robots or fish, and it would be just as good and just as true. The mark of a truly great book, for me, is that I think about it a lot afterward. And I've still got Watership Down on my mind. It's lingering, and I don't mind except for one thing: I miss the bunnies. The book took me a few weeks of off-and-on bathroom reading to get through. With my schedule and spending time with Lynn and Syd, I don't always get as much time to read as I would like. So it was spread out, and I found myself thinking about them quite a bit even during the times when I wasn't reading. So it seems like I'd spent a month with Hazel and Fiver and Bigwig and the rest, and now that the book is over, I miss them. I liked "having them to come home to" so to speak. Knowing that at the end of the day, I'd have a little while to see how those brave rabbits were getting along in our harsh world. Well, they got along fine without me, but I'm still sad that they're gone. Seriously, though, if you haven't read it, go. Get it. You won't be sorry.