book number five of 2015: alice's adventures in wonderland + through the looking glass [lewis carroll].

I have a confession: I never read Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass as a child. I saw the Disney movie a few times, but it was never really one of my favourites, and somehow I was never really interested to read the book.

Until a few weeks ago, that is, when it was continually referenced in Jeannette Walls' The Silver Star, and I finally decided it was time to give it a go. Combine that with a $0.99 price tag for the Kindle version of both books, and I was sold.

I took a few days off from reading during my quick visit to Bangalore, but otherwise I sped through both books pretty quickly. It's so funny to read such an old book after reading so many contemporary books recently -- the funny spellings and punctuation and the old English way of speaking kept me pretty entertained.

I'll admit that while I thoroughly enjoyed Alice's Adventures, I didn't find it to be as crazy and off-the-wall as I had anticipated. If I had read it as a child, I think it would have been much more fanciful than reading it as an adult. Or maybe it's just that my imagination is almost as vivid as Alice's :)

Through the Looking Glass was much more along the zany lines I was expecting. I loved the chapter with Tweedledum and Tweedledee and had good fun reminiscing about the Halloween Mindy and I dressed up as them [nearly 10 years ago!]. And I also loved Humpty Dumpty's explanation of the Jabberwocky poem. My class had to memorize that poem in 10th grade, and although I still remember most of it, I've never known what it meant. Even if Humpty's translation isn't entirely accurate, I'm still happy to have it.

Another fun part for me was to read it in my head with a British accent. I've been on a Downton Abbey binge-watching kick, so my internal British accent is pretty strong, and it made both the books much more entertaining.

Both stories were very quick reads and kept me thoroughly entertained throughout. I'm sad to have missed out on these as a child but am glad I finally got around to them now.
xx

now reading: The Seventh Child by Erik Valeur, one of my Kindle First selections from last year. It sounds super interesting, but it's long, so it might be a while before my next book update.