Personal Narrative: The Phantom Tollbooth

I am a self proclaimed 90s kid. Although I was only in the glorious 1990s for a year and a half, I still consider it to be part of my identity. I remember a simpler time before all of the iPads and iPhones that occupy everyone's lives. When all we needed to entertain ourselves was a good book and good company. Some of the fondest memories from my childhood are when me and my sisters would all sit in the big white couch in my downstairs living room and my dad would read us stories. Of all of the books he read to us my favorite was The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Reading this book as a child blew my mind with its crazy plot but it also taught me that stories could be weird and fun. This book was my first deviation from typical children's
Actually avid reader might be an understatement. I could consume books with a ferocity unmatched by another human. I was very reclusive as a child, spending more time reading than hanging out with friends. There have been a lot of books that have helped to define who I am today but when I look at the many titles on the bookshelves in my room, my eyes always drift to a thick white book covered in tape. The book is Little Brother by Cory Doctorow and I have read it so many times that it is more delicate that a 2,000 year old manuscript. I try to salvage it with scotch tape but I believe it is coming to the end of its shelf life. The book follows a teenager named Marcus as he navigates the underground hacking network of San Francisco after a 9/11 esque terrorist attack. This book was the first exposure I had to political literature and it has influenced my views a great deal. Even though this book is mainly about hacktivism, it portrays a realistic outcome of a terrorist attack from many different perspectives. Marcus is a normal teenage boy and you get to see how his family reacts to the attack and the loss of friends but through his hacking he has connections within the government and as a reader I get to see the chaos and subsequent decisions that the leader of San Francisco make. Following the terrorist attack, Homeland Security turn San Francisco into a totalitarian state where everyone is tracked and everyone is guilty. This
I have read books that have superficially scarred me for a few moments but no other book has shook me to my core like this. I do not believe I am alone when I say that as a child I believed I was destined for something great. Even now I find it hard to imagine that I will end up working some menial job in an office. Applying the plot of this book to my life I could not even imagine what it would be like to know that nothing you do in life will ever matter since it is going to end. Since reading this book I have read more about existentialism and what it means to control your fate. While the world might not be ending anytime soon, our days on earth are limited and how we spend them means everything. This book came at a perfect time in my life because I will begin the real journey towards defining my future and it has made me think a lot harder about the decisions I make and how they will affect me later in life.

When I look back at the long list of books that I have read over the course of my life, these are a few books that always stick out to me. Whether it be the timing of finding them or the messages inside, they have helped to define and shape the person who I am today. Reading has and always will be a passion of mine because it transports me into a different world all while staying in the comfort of my room. College will be a busy time for me with increased