But has anyone read Mark Fabi's "Wyrm"? It's kind of a la Fforde, albeit in a hacker-VR genre and has a lot of Alice in Wonderland connections.
For that matter, the Phantom Tollbooth certainly deserves a mention ... both well worth a read.

Surrealism, it's the way sideways.

Sounds good, I'll look out for it. Welcome to the fforum, btw.

Thank you. I posted a couple of things waaaayy back, but have only just got back from Uni - eagerly awaiting WOLP and the chance to meet Jasper again - I never thought I'd find myself remembering Worcester so fondly!
Saw an uncorrected proof of WOLP on ebay the other day and was soooo tempted...

amazon don't have those books, out of print. :(

Wasn't Milo the boy in The Phantom Tollbooth?
I read it many years ago and the only thing I remember is that at one point he gets in a carriage or something that has no visible means of propulsion and when he starts to ask about it someone says "Be quiet, for it goes without saying" - brilliant!

Welcome back Milo.

You can get The Phantom Tollbooth from Amazon.com (although it is a children's book, it's a great one) and Wyrm you might be able to get used from the same sight, but it's definitely out of print, since it was about the Millenium bug (loosely)

ah, not sure I fancy paying amazon.com's international shipping charge. I'll keep an eye out on ebay...

The Phantom Tollbooth is great, and should be in most bookshops - I know i keep seeing it when I'm looking for Diana Wynne Jones books, and *nearly* buying it. Haven't heard of the other one, but it sounds interesting....

Does anyone watch Doctors (presumably non-working ukers!) It's all getting very exciting, but I'm sure it would be more exciting if I knew who any of the people *were*.



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Do something pretty while you can...

You mean they have more medical dramas during the day! Obviously, Holby City, Casualty, ER, Born and Bred (vaguely) plus Animal Hospital, Vets in Practice etc. isn't sufficient...

Yes, he was. Was looking over my bookshelves for a suitable alias - I'm still looking for the Princesses (sp?) of rhyme and reason.
Best concept, tho'- Milo gets to conduct a sunrise ...

Welcome (back). I remember 'The Phantom Tollbooth' too. My favourite scene was when Milo literally had to eat his words. Have you also seen the animated version?

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"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

Didn't realise there was one - is it any good?

*searches amazon for the vhs / dvd*

Yeah, it's set in two medical practices somewhere in middle England. They seem to see about one patient a day between the two of them. (and there's about 6 doctors.)



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Do something pretty while you can...

Wow, that was surreal -- for a moment there I thought Dante was saying that the animated film of the Phantom Tollbooth was set in 2 medical practices in England.

That's odd, I thought, I could swear it was American and had very few doctors in it at all . . .

But I think I see what happened now (hurrah, we've now got a thread going off topic in at least 2 different directions simultaneously. Fantastic effeort, guys . . .)

Actuall I have seen TPTB, and it's quite good, in a slightly saccharine-y Disneyish kind of a way. And it starts off as live action, and only changes to animation as Milo goes through the booth, which I guess is old hat now, but it was pretty cool at the time.

Not as cool as the penguins in Mary Poppins, mind.



Jesus saves; Buddha does incremental backup.

Technically speaking, it was already pretty old hat then: Blending of live action with cartoons began in the early 1930s, if not earlier... I remember seeing a documentary on television, back in the '70s, that included a snippet of old footage in which Felix the Cat met a "real" actress.

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"This was willed where what is willed... can get rather silly."

Have you tried Abebooks.com for second hand books? I've bought loads of stuff through it - even managed to track down some Dr Syn books for the Dodo's birthday!

used abebooks before, bit hit and miss. Amazon usually have 2nd hand stuff, but not on this occasion. I'll give abebooks another go.

I loved the bit in Phantom Tollbooth when Milo discovers that he is on the island of conclusions.

"But how did we get here?" asked Milo, who was still a bit puzzled by being there at all.

"You jumped, of course," explained Canby. "That's the way most everyone gets here. It's really quite simple: every time you decide something without having a good reason, you jump to Conclusions whether you like it or not. It's such an easy trip to make that I've been here hundreds of times."



Have any of you tried FetchBook.info when looking for used books? I've had a great deal of luck getting both US and UK books from various sources using that search engine.



Post Edited (06-04-03 20:10)

I've got 'The Phantom Tollbooth' and reread it again a couple of years ago. I remember that many years ago, there was a minor scandal over the winner of a Blue Peter art competition.Turned out that the winning picture was a copy of one of Jules Feiffer's illustrations for 'The Phantom Tollbooth'; the one of the Gelatinous Mountain, to be exact.

'Rebecca's World', by Terry Nation, is highly recommonded if you can find a copy (try charity shops)

Amazon here in the US has the new paperback and hardcover(illustrated) for anyone interested.

There are also a number of used in both paperback and hardcover.