101 Books to Read Before You Die discussion

Also known as "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

This is a classic that continues to get the Hollywood treatment, even after a couple of already popular adaptations. Have you read the story before? Do you find it intriguing, or just mind-twisting? Is it truly a children's story, or a little too complicated for children?

Is this supposed to include Through the Looking Glass as well? I only read the first part so far, but will read the second also because my copy has both.

This is one of those books that I never read as a kid. Not sure why, maybe I just wasn't into fantasy stories much, but I finished the first part last night. It has no plot, there isn't much of a story to it and it turns out to all be a dream Alice was having, but I very much enjoyed it. You really don't need a complex plot to have a good, fun story.

I think the characters are what makes it so great. The Cheshire Cat, and everyone at the Mad Tea Party probably are my favourite characters, but I also loved the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle. All the characters have their own little quirks to them that make them fun to read about. I loved the silliness of the tea party and the story the Dormouse tried to tell.

Alice sure did to a lot of eating to make herself grow and shrink as needed to fit in where she was. She went through quite a bit to get into that garden. What a bizarre way to play croquet! The Queen is an odd one though, always ordering people to lose their heads, but apparently the King always pardons everyone at the end of the day. Alice wakes suddenly and is on the riverbank with her sister and tells her about her dream. Such a curious dream to have!

I really enjoyed this book and I think it would be a good book for kids to read. It's very imaginative, and really a very fun book with rather unique characters. Depending on the age, there may be a few things that they might not understand, or might go by them as not being amusing, but it would still be an enjoyable read.

It's just Alice in Wonderland, for our group purposes, but we could do a thread in the "In a Series" section about Through The Lookingglass if you're interested in discussing that.

I'm looking forward to this reread and what I think of it as an adult :)

I never read this as a child. Another GR group picked Through the Looking Glass as its quarterly read, so I read both of them a couple of weeks ago. I am not a fan of kiddy lit and this was no exception. However, I am glad I read this one because so many of the elements have made their way into pop culture. I wonder if Carroll was the first to write a children's book which blurred the line between reality and dream. I wonder if the Oz series was partly inspired by this book.

I know this is only supposed to be for the first book, but seeing as there aren't many posts I hope it's okay if I post this here.

I finished Through the Looking Glass last night, and while I enjoyed the poems and songs I thought the characters in the first book were much better. The two I liked most were Humpty Dumpty and the White Knight. The Queens were a little annoying sometimes, but as with the other book, the wordplay is what makes the story great and there seems to be even more in this one. I enjoyed the first book more, but definitely had a lot of fun reading this one also. Wish I had read them as a kid though. Thinking back, I wonder what I would've thought of them? My tastes in books changed so often when I was a kid. So glad I finally got around to reading them.

I think as kids we don't mind some if the stranger nuances as much, we just treat then as fantastical elements, so we can appreciate them more.

My review

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I just finished Alice in Wonderland. I love the Disney movie, and as I was reading I saw the little salutes to the book that I missed just watching the film. I love how at the end it blurs the line between what was a dream and what was reality. I never read this book as a kid and I think I would've hated it if I did.

I'm about 1/4 through it on probably my second re-read. I forgot how fun (and crazy!) this story is. And yes, I'm having lots of Disney flashbacks while I read :)

The courtroom scene is complete nonsense, but oddly enough, I had to laugh through some of it, since it seems pretty much like courts (or at least Congress) today. Lots of blabbering nonsense and most of the time, nothing really productive ever happening!