
On Kipling, Being Sick, and Storytelling
As a child and a teenager, one of my favorite authors was Rudyard Kipling. I might have been about 14 the first time I read The Jungle Books, but I was surprised that Mowgli's story got sooooo boring to my teenage self after awhile. Then, pleasant surprise! Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was right the middle and was a refreshing break from my boredom. And it's the one story from that anthology that has stuck with me all these decades. Later on, I couldn't resist buying a set of small, anti