Commute audiobook. An easy one -- only 1 CD long! Richard Gere is the Pilot/narrator. Sixth Sense-era Haley Joel Osment voices the little prince. Richard Gere is great as an audiobook reader, actually; I'd happily listen to him narrate others. HOWEVER I suspect this is an abridged version (not clear on the CD box) because some of the quotes posted here on Goodreads were definitely not included in the book I listened to. So that's a bit disappointing.

I really enjoyed this while I was listening and kept thinking "I can't wait to read this to my own (hypothetical) kids!" It made me frustrated with the grown-up world and wish I could revert to a childlike state. I gather that's a fairly common reaction. But now, having finished it, I find I'm more frustrated with the book itself than with the grown-up world I'm stuck in, and I don't think it's one I would seek out for my kids on my own initiative.

THE LITTLE PRINCE explicitly differentiates children, who are apparently perfect little vessels of wonder and curiosity and love, from adults, who are apparently vain and officious and consumed with bean-counting and finances. And while I certainly think that wonder and curiosity and love should be celebrated (which the book does, very sweetly), I resent its implication that, as a grown-up, I am probably vain and officious and consumed with counting things that don't matter (stars, dollahs, whatever). Believe me, little prince, I'd be a LOT happier if I didn't have to go to work and make money and worry about my bank balance and pay off my student loans, and instead I could just travel around the universe and think Deep Thoughts and experience all the amazing sights and sounds and feelings and surprises that it has to offer. Alas, if I decided not to go to work ever again and stop paying my student loans, I'd end up without housing or food or warm clothes or the capacity to travel or, very probably, the capacity to feel wonder and curiosity and love. The grown-up world with all the responsibility it demands kind of sucks sometimes... sometimes it sucks a lot... but participating in the intricacies of the grown-up world is what allows parents to give kids the environment to cultivate all those character traits the little prince promotes. And honestly, if you weren't so judgy, little prince, you might not feel the need to go in search of the yellow snake. But that's not all: it's not enough that I am probably a vain, officious bean-counter. If I somehow, miraculously, avoid such a tragic fate and maintain my childlike open-mindedness, I am doomed to be uttterly and irretrievably alone. Fuck that.

Fact: I can be a grown-up, and a responsible one at that, and still experience curiosity, wonder, and love. I don't want my (hypothetical) children to be afraid of growing up. Because unless they're going to chase the yellow snake like the little prince, well, they're going to grow up, and it doesn't have to be terrible.