In Pooh and the Philosophers, John Tyerman Williams attempts to prove, strictly tongue-in-cheek, that A. A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh books are commentaries upon the whole of Western philosophy, from ancient Greece to modern existentialist philosophers.

The dedication page of this book says: "To Elizabeth Mapstone, whose encouragement and constructive criticism turned a casual joke into this book." No surprise there; this is exactly the sort of book which seems like it grew out of someone's absurd, off-the-cuff joke. When I was in high school, I joked to a friend that the real purpose of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter was to prove that Osiris is the one true god. If anyone had pushed me strongly enough to develop that theory fully, I may have produced just such a book as this.

I can't really recommend it. Not because Williams' arguments are weak and strained; you expect that. The real problem here is that the book isn't particularly funny. For a book which nobody who reads it would ever expect to take seriously, that's a pretty large flaw.