An all-time classic that amassed immense popularity, a huge fan base and an infinity of adaptations, and for just reasons. A classic apt for all audiences, children and adult alike, if you can withstand the non-stop irrationality that is. I couldn’t, but don’t be afraid to give it a try.

Lewis Carroll isn’t thought to have been a user of drugs, the Caterpillar was smoking tobacco, and the mushroom is no more magic than the various cakes Alice eats. Volatility is a first rule of the Wonderland… Everything is prone to change unexpectedly an unpredictably…There are so many great things to say about this story. For me, as a work of fantasy, it is on par with The Chronicles of Narnia, Peter Pan and The Wizard of Oz in terms of its creative imagination. And oh yeah, there’s that. I firmly believe this is the most amazing and beautiful and confusing and curious setting of all time. It’s immersive, and it’s strange, and it’s so unique and fantastic and creative and I love it so much. I can come up with even more loosely positive adjectives if that overwhelming number didn’t suffice. This was not an encouraging opening for a conversation. Alice replied, rather shyly, “I – I hardly know, sir, just at present – at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then.” the baby-turning-into-a-pig thing is honestly objectively terrifying. especially when alice is like "this baby is like a star-fish" and looks down and boom. It's all so illogical and confusing. Alice (and everyone else in this novel) constantly contradicts themselves and each other. The whole thing is utter nonsense! Though, there are a few good puns: No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise. Ah well. I will try it again some day just to see if I was being a grump on the day I read it and I plan to read this to my future-kids to see if their youth will allow them to interpret this more positively. After all, if Ronan Lynch from [Book: The Raven Boys] loves it then I will force myself too.

But I do love the original animated Disney adaptation. There’s a certain quality to the book that’s captured within that film, which I haven’t found recreated in any other retelling or use of the setting or adaptation.Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that! Una de las cosas que más me ha gustado de Alicia en el país de las maravillas es sentir que no estaba leyendo algo que ya conocía. Realmente sabía mucho, pero no sabía todo lo que tenía que saber. Sigo sin tener claro que lo sepa todo después de leerlo, ya que tengo esa sensación de que en cada diálogo hay un algo encerrado, una metáfora encubierta de algo más. Todo guarda una sorpresa. Me ha gustado mucho esa sensación. Today, reading a friend’s review on Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass, I searched the garden shed for an edition of Alice in Wonderland illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger which I read ages ago, to have another look at Zwerger’s marvellous illustrations. Sadly enough it has disappeared – I must have lent out my copy to a friend. So, heading for a revisit in the near future hoping for the book to return, in the meantime I cannot resist sharing some of Lisbeth Zwerger’s illustrations which I add to the book appetizer I wrote because a friend asked me so long ago.

In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter: and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.” I remember reading and loving this book as a child. I identified with Alice’s point of view, lost in a world both strange and familiar. All the characters she encountered were mad and funny. There was a sense of playful and sparkling adventure. I loved the vintage illustrations by John Tenniel. I guess the charming Walt Disney adaptation also influenced my perception of the book. Para mí, el principal tema del que habla Alicia es la busca del propio ser. Quién eres tú, que quieres ser. Hacía dónde te quieres dirigir, ser consciente de cuál es tu camino y no abandonarlo. Los personajes de Alicia sufren constantemente situaciones surrealistas, pero mantienen todo el tiempo sus manías. Muchas veces los diálogos entre personajes parecían no tener continuidad, ya que cada uno hablaba de su tema, pero siento que es un reflejo más de eso. Abrazar lo que uno es, y disfrutarlo. El constante cambio en el tamaño de Alicia vuelve a hacer hincapié en el deseo de ser uno mismo, ya que aunque inicialmente la niña siente la atracción de poder cambiar de tamaño, llega a cansarse de no tener su tamaño real. De no ser su yo original. Reading this book for the first time as an adult leaves me bewildered, vaguely amused and mostly lost. I'm now worrying whether I'm too old for children's stories anymore (I briefly reread some of my faves - HP, Winnie the Pooh and Charlotte's Web - and have concluded it's not me, just that book). Little Alice is a bored girl laying in the prairie when she suddenly notices a curious White Rabbit complaining about getting late to his appointment. Following it she stumbles upon a rabbit hole, and when she enters it plummets in freefall until landing in a whole new world. This is the story of her adventures in Wonderland, a place where nothing makes sense, and everything crazy will take place.

Un libro muy, MUY extraño; lleno de alocadas sorpresas, la gran mayoría agradables. Aventuras insanas, decapitaciones racionales y adorables reuniones de té. Irónicamente, no fue mi taza de té. La Literarura Sinsentido no es en absoluto lo mío. Este fue mi primer encuentro con el género y lamentablemente no una experiencia que atesore, me doy cuenta ahora que necesito sentido en mis lecturas. Aun así, aunque no lo disfruté mucho este es un clásico atemporal que me alegra finalmente poder tachar de mi lista.