My Visit to Dictionopolis

When I was a kid, I used to like to read everything. From cereal boxes, to funny pages, to street signs, everything was literature to me. But as I got a bit older the reading bug started to leave. I was dissatisfied with Dr. Seuss and ready to say goodbye to “Goodnight Moon”. I had grown out of past stories, but couldn’t find any others. Then, as if by miracle one Christmas, my older cousin Brad gave me a gift that I will cherish forever, if only in spirit. He gave me my first real chapter book: “The Phantom Tollbooth.” I, like Milo, the protagonist, had begun to get bored with life and learning. I had entered the doldrums and without realizing it, “The Phantom Tollbooth” was able to guide me out.
I read it the first time to appease my cousin and my parents, not knowing the treasure that I was simply skimming, a word I now look upon with disdain. I don’t believe I exaggerate when I say that reading that book changed my life. It introduced me to a whole new world and showed me that there are many to see and to find. It was the first intimate experience I had with the written word that truly excited me, and I knew than that we would have a powerful relationship. We have since had many a rendezvous, meeting in worlds far from my own, and worlds perhaps just down the street. I have been able to navigate the streets of London Below with Richard Mayhew in Neil Gaiman’s “Neverwhere” and experienced disgusting, vulgar, drunken sex with Tucker Max in his collected personal essays entitled “I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell” which I often pray is fiction. In “Good Omens” I was able to ride with the four bikers of the apocalypse and see the son of Satan raised as a white bread suburbanite. Literature, whether real or imagined, serious or satirical, has always been a very important part of my identity. Books have helped me come to terms with who I am and introduced me to characters that I hope will remain a part of my soul. I believe that any character we connect to in a story lives on through us, even just a little bit. So I know that each and every character that I’ve ever loved, hated, admired, or abhorred are all sitting inside of me and if I’m ever lonely or bored, or simply finding myself once again in the doldrums, Milo and I can take a little drive through the Kingdom of Wisdom with Tock, the watchdog that ticks, and everything will be ok.