King Azaz, The Phantom Tollbooth
"In this box are all the words I know," he said. "Most of them you will never need, some you will use constantly, but with them you may ask all the questions which have never been answered and answer all the questions which have never been asked. All the great books of the past and all the ones left to come are made with these words. With them there is no obstacle that you cannot overcome. All you must learn to do is use them well and in the right places."
A Few Favorites
Here are a few of my favorite works of fiction. The explanations are incomplete but could never be made complete because I feel so much for each of the works listed.
Anna Karenina- Tolstoy is the absolute master of imagery. The way he paints his characters, you feel like you know each one personally. You watch their entire lives unfold or unravel, depending on who you're talking about. You see the good and the bad in each person, no one is ever made out to be a saint or a criminal for very long without their role evolving into something else. And this book isn't even all about the characters, through Levin you learn so much about the politics of the time and the changing relationship between peasants and gentry. I couldn't even explain all the reasons I love this book. I come back to it again and again and again and again...
On The Road- I really like Kerouac's writing style and Dean Moriarty is a personal hero of mine, for better or for worse. And I love that he was based on a real person! It's just one of those books that makes you want to drop everything and travel and bum it and stay up all night and dance all day.
Vanity Fair- Satire at its best. Completely ageless.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland- For the same reasons that the entire world loves it: Fantasy, Creative Genius, Sir John Tenniel's Illustrations, Symbolism, Satire. You just love it more and more as you grow up and start to understand everything going on in the book and its sequels.
Anna Karenina- Tolstoy is the absolute master of imagery. The way he paints his characters, you feel like you know each one personally. You watch their entire lives unfold or unravel, depending on who you're talking about. You see the good and the bad in each person, no one is ever made out to be a saint or a criminal for very long without their role evolving into something else. And this book isn't even all about the characters, through Levin you learn so much about the politics of the time and the changing relationship between peasants and gentry. I couldn't even explain all the reasons I love this book. I come back to it again and again and again and again...
On The Road- I really like Kerouac's writing style and Dean Moriarty is a personal hero of mine, for better or for worse. And I love that he was based on a real person! It's just one of those books that makes you want to drop everything and travel and bum it and stay up all night and dance all day.
Vanity Fair- Satire at its best. Completely ageless.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland- For the same reasons that the entire world loves it: Fantasy, Creative Genius, Sir John Tenniel's Illustrations, Symbolism, Satire. You just love it more and more as you grow up and start to understand everything going on in the book and its sequels.
Anna Karenina
"Is this life? I am not living, but waiting for an event which is continually being put off and put off."
Anna Karenina is by far one of my favorite characters in literature. Her happiness and heartbreak are painful to witness but beautiful in their evolution. It's as if she's of another world, having resided on a cloud of good character and charity throughout her young life. But her struggles have such a realness and relatability to them in some way, throughout the novel. She's timeless.
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