Reading 1001 discussion

This is one of those few books I have read twice. The first when I was a young girl, this second time as a mother reading it aloud to her children. Everyone knows this story, a crazy dream like tale of a young girl who falls through a rabbit hole and there has many madcap dventures featuring some of the most beloved characters in all of literature - The Mad Hatter, the White Rabbit, the Chesire Cat, and The Queen of Hearts.

Unfortunately for me this did not stand up to my childhood memories. I really think that it is a book best suited to children. It is so utterly nonsensical that only those few adults still retain the innonce and wonder of childhood will be able to read it with the same sense of wonder and imagination that we had as children. My boys were entralled by the story, and particularly loved the illustrations. I think their favorite character was the Cheshire Cat. For me, I just couldn't suspend my sense of reality quite far enough. This is unfortunate because I truly believe that without Alice, my beloved Fairyland series, which also features crazy creatures and improbable adventures, would not exist.

4 stars


Odd. Curious(er). Zany. Original. and FUN!

I feel like perhaps this is a book I missed the window to best appreciate. It's also odd to read a book which is so strongly in the public imagination - I knew most of the story from the movie and other references, I own a dress with Wonderland characters on it -I even own two cloth diapers with Alice prints. It was fun and silly and enjoyable, but I think I would have fallen more in love with it had I read it as a child - and I might have, because I know I own copies of both books back in Canada and have had them since I was in school.

Read 5/18/2009
Rating: 4 stars

I need to reread sometime as I didn't write a review.

4 stars - read The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition

The annotations revealed an unexpected depth in the whimsical tales of Alice. I loved learning about the logical puzzles and social commentary I had missed on earlier reading, as much as revisiting the word plays and fantastical creatures.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
5/5 stars

May 2015. Delightful, charming, classic. “When I used to read fairy tales, I fancied that kind of thing never happened, and now here I am in the middle of one!” I can't believe I have never read this book and am so glad that I did. My Mom was named Alice and I know she enjoyed this book, so good memories.

I enjoyed finally reading this book, obviously, I knew the story mostly from Disney but then also from the film adaptations. I really wish I had read it in my childhood, I think I would have got a lot more out of it. Still enjoyable as an adult, I liked the wordplay, the nonsense of it all, the riddles and the poetry. Fast easy read, the original illustrations by John Tenniel really bring the story to life.

I reread this book. I enjoyed it more than the first time and was impressed with how much things from this book appear in every day life and in many of the books we read. This is a fun read and enjoyed it. I did not read an illustrated version but you really can see the pictures as you listen to the audio because the illustrations are as much a part of our culture as the words.