Alice in Wonderland

For Christmas this year, I got a Droid X. I have never had a smartphone before, nor did I ever think I would get one. I knew that I would become a slave to it, but when someone else is buying it for you.....

One of my favorite features of the Droid X was that it came with a Kindle app already on it. This means I can download books to my phone, as if it were one of those actual hand-held Kindles. I also eventually downloaded the Nook app from Barnes and Noble and Google Books. I can read wherever I want.

My first book that I read on this new device was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It is a free book on Kindle and other reading devices.

I remember reading this book when I was a child, because I was a fan of the miniseries on TV, Alice in Wonderland [TV 1985]. I found that the book is somewhat darker than the TV miniseries, though not nearly as dark as Tim Burton's version Alice in Wonderland that stars Johnny Depp.

The book was different from the miniseries, as well as the Alice in Wonderland (Two-Disc Special Un-Anniversary Edition) cartoon version from Disney. As a result, I didn't really care for the book in elementary school.

As an adult, I found the book much more charming, and I could forgive the differences between the text and the motion pictures. I got a kick out of all the puns, because I could more easily understand them as an adult. I fear that children miss out on these too much. Although, that would make this book a useful tool for vocabulary studies, as well as literature studies. It was a ridiculously easy read, which I did in little spurts of only a few minutes while making dinner or waiting in line, over a period of only a couple of days. Had I sat down and just read, I probably could have polished it off within a few minutes.

If you aren't familiar with the story, it is basically a long dream in which the title character falls down the rabbit hole, and encounters a bunch of strange creatures. When reading it, you will learn about common expressions, such as "grinning like a Cheshire cat," and others. You will also be completely convinced that Lewis Carroll was on some good drugs when he wrote it. But it is a classic, and should be read by all, especially if you are watching the movie version. I am a big advocate of reading a book prior to seeing a movie. Or, if you accidentally see the movie first, you whould always go back and read the book. You are almost guaranteed to prefer the book.

I was not given a free copy of anything for writing this blog post. However, I do plan on purchasing the miniseries that I am showing below. Check out any of these other related items on Amazon. I'm not going to lie - I earn a few pennies when you order through my Amazon affiliate links. But I won't steer you wrong in your choices!

This is a collection of items related to the Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland.

































This is a collection of items related to the Disney version of Alice in Wonderland:


































And of course, here are all kinds of fun book versions of the story