# The Phantom Toolbooth **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 30, 2020, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377 "2020-08-30T15:44:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/41 "2020-09-03T15:13:15Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > I actually never read The Phantom Tollbooth as a kid. First time was reading it to my kid who is now 34. And to his siblings. Loved it each time. > > I suspect the reading it aloud and seeing the child’s appreciation of the wordplay and Dad joke literalism was part of it. And the drawings. I know you didn’t mean this, but I’m now imagining your reading a kid’s book to a bunch of people in their 30s. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/42 "2020-09-03T17:58:21Z")
I’ve already read the Phantom Tollbooth. Been a long while, but I remember most of it. Did see the movie too. Pretty sure I preferred the book. But I’m with LSLguy that, as a middle aged man, I want to read the Phantom To_ol_booth. That sounds like a fun story that I could relate to. > [@robardin](#): > > Same thing with _Watership Down_ . Now that was a great book. Read it at least a half dozen times. **DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE.** But if you want your kids to be traumatized for life, let them watch it. “Hey kids, you want to watch a movie about a bunch of cute bunnies?” ---
**Author:** ![ekedolphin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ekedolphin/32/10003_2.png) [@ekedolphin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ekedolphin)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/43 "2020-09-03T18:07:14Z")
I love _The Phantom Tollbooth_. It’s one of my favorite books. I even kinda like the movie, though not as much. It leaves out the part where Milo meets Alec Bings, and the kid who’s half a person who drives, like, two-thirds of a car. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/44 "2020-09-03T18:19:58Z")
I just got a annotated copy of TPTB, and it is as lovely as ever. The Moon is a Harsh Mistress caused me to stop re-reading recently. Yes, the “Man my only friend” parts are still great but the long, boring and wrong political diatribes ruined it for me this time. I now know better. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/45 "2020-09-03T18:24:16Z")
I still like _both_ The Hobbit and LotR. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/46 "2020-09-03T18:54:59Z")
I liked The Hobbit as a child. Not so much as an adult. I’ve tried reading LOTR at various ages, and never managed to get into it. Even the movie didn’t interest me. ---
**Author:** ![Wallaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/dc4da7/32.png) [@Wallaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallaby)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/47 "2020-09-04T00:53:22Z")
The Hobbit is written as a children’s book. Interestingly, the first few of chapters of LOTR have a similar style - talking foxes, fun at parties, jolly wizards etc. By the end of LOTR all characters are declaiming deathless prose more suitable to Epic Theatre. I guess Tolkein wanted to establish the Shire as this magical, kid-friendly fantasy world rather like Wonderland or the 100-acre wood - a refuge from the serious world outside. (The Phantom Tollbooth is great, and I pulled out my copy yesterday to check the Chroma-Toscanini connection). ---
**Author:** ![Pork\_Rind](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pork_rind/32/111_2.png) [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/48 "2020-09-04T02:56:44Z")
> [@Wallaby](#): > > Interestingly, the first few of chapters of LOTR have a similar style - talking foxes, fun at parties, jolly wizards etc. By the end of LOTR all characters are declaiming deathless prose more suitable to Epic Theatre. > > I guess Tolkein wanted to establish the Shire as this magical, kid-friendly fantasy world rather like Wonderland or the 100-acre wood - a refuge from the serious world outside. That and the fact that he changed his mind about what he was writing not long into the work but never went back to change the tone of the opening chapters because it worked as a loss of innocence thing. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/49 "2020-09-04T03:24:36Z")
Jules Feiffer pretty much taught me to draw with that book. I remember very little of Juster’s plot but I can probably draw Officer Shrift from memory 45 years later. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/50 "2020-09-04T22:22:30Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Now that was a great book. Read it at least a half dozen times. > > **DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE.** IMO that applies to _every_ book/movie ever made. Whichever one you encounter first, don’t ever do the other. IMO no movie can do justice to a book. And no book can do justice to a movie. The two narrative mechanisms are just too different. Either one can tell a story well, but they can’t tell _the same_ story well. There are famously only 7 actual plots in all of human literature, and yet there are millions of books and thousands of movies for each. The only reason humanity didn’t write the first 7 books or plays then quit for good is that the details matter. And the kinds of details that fit a movie are anathema in a book & vice versa. Or at least that’s my take. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2020, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/51 "2020-09-04T23:40:51Z")
There are a few exceptions. Jaws & Jurassic Park are both better than the books. Gump also. I read Jurassic Park first for the record. The Godfather is a great movie from a good book. To Kill a Mockingbird is as good as the book. I read the book first. Many would say Gone with the Wind the movie is better. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/52 "2020-09-05T01:24:22Z")
**The Phantom Tollbooth** is the last book I read to my kids before they ceased being tweens. I have a soft spot in my heart for that book. Right alongside the **Great Brain** series–I have read those books to multiple kids over the years and everyone loves them. Boy I miss reading to children at bedtime. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2020, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/53 "2020-09-05T22:45:17Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > There are a few exceptions. > > Jaws & Jurassic Park are both better than the books. Gump also. I read Jurassic Park first for the record. > > The Godfather is a great movie from a good book. > To Kill a Mockingbird is as good as the book. I read the book first. > Many would say Gone with the Wind the movie is better Norman Maclean’s novella _A River Runs Through It_ is, in my view, a classic of American literature; spare, poetic, haunting. Robert Redford’s film version is just short of being equally good. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/54 "2020-09-06T19:02:28Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > > [@k9bfriender](#): > > > > Now that was a great book. Read it at least a half dozen times. > > > > **DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE.** > > IMO that applies to _every_ book/movie ever made. Whichever one you encounter first, don’t ever do the other. > > IMO no movie can do justice to a book. And no book can do justice to a movie. The two narrative mechanisms are just too different. Either one can tell a story well, but they can’t tell _the same_ story well. > > There are famously only 7 actual plots in all of human literature, and yet there are millions of books and thousands of movies for each. The only reason humanity didn’t write the first 7 books or plays then quit for good is that the details matter. And the kinds of details that fit a movie are anathema in a book & vice versa. > > Or at least that’s my take. I’d say the TV versions of _The Magicians_, _The Umbrella Academy_, and _The Boys_ have all outdone the source material. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/55 "2020-09-06T19:10:59Z")
I dunno I thought the film was fine, and the film version of Holes (written by Louis Sachar) was true to the book. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/56 "2020-09-06T19:17:01Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Jaws & Jurassic Park are both better than the books. I find JP to be a perfectly enjoyable movie, but the book is superior. One of the few examples where I can enjoy both. In my experience, @LSLGuy generally has it right though- if you enjoy one, it tends to tarnish your view of the other. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2020, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/57 "2020-09-07T12:47:33Z")
_The Green Mile_ and _The Shawshank Redemption_ are both quality movies that are also equally good novels/novellas. ---
**Author:** ![standardnoise](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/97f17d/32.png) [@standardnoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standardnoise)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2020, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/58 "2020-09-07T13:03:03Z")
I freaking love this book. I own several copies and have multiple tattoos of the book’s illustrations namely Chroma and The Terrible Trivium ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2020, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/59 "2020-09-07T13:35:17Z")
The Shawshank movie takes a lot of narration word for word from the novel. I have managed to get people who otherwise would not read a book to read this one by telling them that they would hear Morgan Freeman’s voice in their head when reading the book. It worked, although perhaps that will still be the last book those guys ever read, ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2020, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377/60 "2020-09-08T14:36:33Z")
Well, yeah. I can’t think of a movie that didn’t disappoint me after I read the book. But this wasn’t just disappointing, this was a crime against humanity to create and then market as a kid’s movie. The book could be a bit traumatizing, I suppose, as it describes genocide and then predation and even fights to the death among rabbits. But watching it, with cute cartoon rabbits being slaughtered and beaten and shot, that’s a bit much. > [@What\_Exit](#): > > Jaws & Jurassic Park are both better than the books. Gotta disagree with the latter there. I read JP as a kid, and it was my favorite book at the time. When I heard the movie was being made, I was beside myself with excitement. Then I saw it, and it was one of the bigger letdowns of my young life at the time. The rest of the franchise was even worse. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-phantom-toolbooth/919377.md?page=2)