The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster

[goodreads]

Title: The Phantom Tollbooth
Author: Norton Juster
Genre: Childrens
Rating: 2.5/5
# pages: 256
Date read: February 2013

For Milo, everything's a bore. When a tollbooth mysteriously appears in his room, he drives through only because he's got nothing better to do. But on the other side, things seem different. Milo visits the island of Conclusions (you get there by jumping), learns about time from a ticking watchdog named Tock, and even embarks on a quest to rescue Rhyme and Reason.

A mix of several different books like "The Little Prince", "The Wizard of Oz" and "Alice in Wonderland". I can't quite figure out what I think of it. Parts were rather slow-moving and "weird just for the sake of being weird" (much my problem with Terry Pratchett as well. I love good-weird like Douglas Adams, but some people just try too hard), but other parts I really liked!

In the end, I'm glad I stuck with it, because it's quite a fun and quirky book in parts, but I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more - even loved it - if I'd first come across it as a child rather than in my thirties.