The Immortal Alice

  I have so many fond memories of the books that I read in my childhood.  I remember sitting on my chair in my reading spot or lying in bed reading my beloved books.  They opened a gateway to other worlds,  worlds that I have never stopped exploring.
     One of the first of these books was Alice in Wonderland.  Until recently I still possessed the edition that my parents had bought for me.  It was falling apart, so I got rid of it. (Forgive me!)  I still have the first page in my possession.  On it my mother had written: "Beloved book of Martin T. Gamble, 7 years old. Read entirely by him on Sunday, January 10, 1965."  I don't remember much else about that Sunday, but I certainly remember reading that book.
     It was a vivid, yet surreal experience.  I mean, it starts with a young girl sitting beside her sister,who is reading a book,  but then a white rabbit runs by her, exclaims, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!" and pulls a watch out of its waistcoat- pocket.  At this point I could have said to myself, "Man! This is too weird for me!", or an equivalent expression more suited to my seven-year-old brain, and tossed the book aside.  I had already read some popular science books.  I knew that rabbits don't speak, don't wear waistcoats, whatever they were, and don't carry watches.
     But I continued.  I was intrigued.  I felt empathy for this young girl, who was probably my own age, and who underwent such harrowing adventures.  Imagine falling down a bottomless rabbit hole, imagine meeting such bizarre creatures.  I acutely remember how bizarre it all was.  But part of the allure of the book was that no matter how strange her adventures were,  I could relate to her. And even though the characters were rather eccentric, to put it mildly,  I felt that they were actual characters. I was enthralled.  I forgot everything until I had finished Alice in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass.
     I possess several annotated versions of Alice.  The annotations are very helpful, but I managed to understand  Alice  without them.   For example, in one chapter there is a reference to treacle. My notes tell me that treacle is British for molasses.  I did not know that then,  but it certainly didn't impair my enjoyment in reading the book.  Are annotations essential to understanding a piece of fiction?  The magnificent illustrations by John Tenniel  helped me far more than any notes could have.  They also managed to convey the splendour and strangeness of Alice's adventures, and formed a perfect complement to the text.
     Lewis Carroll, or Charles Dodgson,  the author of Alice in Wonderland,  taught Mathematics at Oxford University.  Throughout the book there are logical puzzles.  They eluded me then, and I am sure that they would still elude me.  I was not interested in its logical puzzles, but in the its fascinating world and in the sense of something on the horizon, something wonderful and unexpected that kept me reading to the very end.
    It was a memorable Sunday afternoon. That book kindled in me a love for fantasy and science-fiction that has remained with me to this day, and a desire to explore the boundless vistas of the imagination.  Thank you, Lewis Carroll.