NPR. org, December 27, 2013
Listen on All Things Considered
We want simple things from books in winter â or at least I do. I want a vindication of my desire to loaf, laze, retreat from the world, the assurances, in short, of The Wind in the Willows, whose edicts are sane and just: “No animal, according to the rules of animal-etiquette, is ever expected to do anything strenuous, or heroic, or even moderately active during the off-season of winter.”
Parul Sehgal 
I read somewhere in some blog or other, that the problem with Wind in the Willows is that not much happens. I always have felt that plenty happens. It strikes me as a very spiritusl book too. The only problem I have with it is that the second half of the book is too focussed on Toad. Plus I think Badger would not have tolerated the presence of interlopers in Toad Hall and he would have cleared that lot out long before Toad reappeared.