Rohan's blog

The Phantom Toolbooth

I recently came to be in posession of a kindle around Jan 2020. At this point, it had been around 2-3 years since I had read a book. Let me clear the air: I absolutely love reading books. I had my 11th and 12th grade before university, and it had resulted in a dry spell. Well, not really. You can make time for things no matter how busy you are, and I just happened to neglect this joy of mine.

The kindle changed things. Suddenly, every single book in the world was accessible to me. Ofcourse, owing to the fact that I never buy the ebook, I just find *cough* “alternate sources” for it.

Well. This is my thoughts/takeaways/whatever you want to call it- from the first book I read after this dry spell. The Phantom Toolbooth.

The story #

This is a kids book. Yet, it was a highly recommended book on reddit, even for adults. The story begins with a young boy called Milo who finds life dull and uninteresting. He finds a mysterious “booth” in his house coming back from school one day, which he examines and subsequently chooses to go to a mystical world through it.

This is no ordinary world. It’s a world full of literal translations of words and metaphors. The main plot revolves around bringing “Rhyme and reason”, two sisters, back to the cities of Ditionopolis and Digitopilis - cities of words and numbers respectively.

In the start of the story, he meets a dog called Tock, who is the keeper of time. He literally has a huge clock on his body. Both him and milo develop a very special understanding and bond as the story develops.

This book, like I mentioned before, is filled with literal translations and interpretations of words and metaphors, which makes it an entertaining read. It’s a light read and really enjoyable.

I’ve kept some quotes from this book which I enjoy. In the end, the princesses and kings all tell Milo that the journey he undertook was impossible. He is bewildered at this. and the princess, very simply, tells him :

What you can do is often simply a matter of what you will do!

A huge party and feast is thrown. Milo is sad to leave all his new friends behind. Tock tells him:

Sometimes,
The fact that something is ending is what makes it memorable.

I really like those quotes, and unfortunately those are the only ones I remember. The book was full of them.

The phantom Toolboth was a great, light, fun read after a long break from reading anything at all. I’d recommend!