After a long break from reading, I started with something easy and fun: Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. I can't say the book has much purpose or forces one to ponder the human condition, but it is beautifully written. Through the reading, one really does feel the sense of wonder that a child feels as he or she is exploring the world around them. I highly recommend this book for anyone who feels like life is losing its luster. Despite my apathy about a lot of life, adventuring with Alice always made me smile.

Alice's willingness to accept the impossible leads her to the most interesting situations. Talking animals and flowers or constantly growing and shrinking confuses her, but she sees life as a puzzle and figures out how to control the growing and shrinking. The other playful part about the novel are all the puns. Here are some of my favorite are

• When talking about school lessons:

  'And how many hours a day did you do lessons?' said Alice, in a hurry to change the subject.

  'Ten hours the first day,' said the Mock Turtle: 'nine the next, and so on.'

  'What a curious plan!' exclaimed Alice.

  'That's the reason they're called lessons,' the Gryphon remarked: 'because they lessen from day to day.'

  This was quite a new idea to Alice, and she thought it over a little before she made her next remark. 'Then the eleventh day must have been a holiday?'

  'Of course it was,' said the Mock Turtle.

  'And how did you manage on the twelfth?' Alice went on eagerly.

  'That's enough about lessons,' the Gryphon interrupted in a very decided tone: 'tell her something about the games now.'

  I especially like how the reader is left to figure out the twelfth day.

• On time in music:

  'Of course you don't!' the Hatter said, tossing his head contemptuously. 'I dare say you never even spoke to Time!'

  'Perhaps not,' Alice cautiously replied: 'but I know I have to beat time when I learn music.'

  'Ah! that accounts for it,' said the Hatter. 'He won't stand beating. Now, if you only kept on good terms with him, he'd do almost anything you liked with the clock. For instance, suppose it were nine o'clock in the morning, just time to begin lessons: you'd only have to whisper a hint to Time, and round goes the clock in a twinkling! Half-past one, time for dinner!'

• On flower beds in Alice Through the Looking Glass:

  'That's right!' said the Tiger-lily. 'The daisies are worst of all. When one speaks, they all begin together, and it's enough to make one wither to hear the way they go on!'

  'How is it you can all talk so nicely?' Alice said, hoping to get it into a better temper by a compliment. 'I've been in many gardens before, but none of the flowers could talk.'

  'Put your hand down, and feel the ground,' said the Tiger-lily. 'Then you'll know why.' Alice did so. 'It's very hard,' she said, 'but I don't see what that has to do with it.'

  'In most gardens,' the Tiger-lily said, 'they make the beds too soft—so that the flowers are always asleep.'

  This sounded a very good reason, and Alice was quite pleased to know it. 'I never thought of that before!' she said.

  I love this type of silly reasoning.

All in all, I had a lot of fun reading Alice if for nothing else to rekindle that sense of child-like wonder and faith in me.