Books to Read Before They Become Movies

For Alice Through the Looking Glass (out May 27) the sequel to 2010's Alice in Wonderland, Tim Burton once again whisks Alice (Mia Wasikowska) through the world of the Red Queen, the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat, with all the wild flights of fancy he can conjure up. Let's forget the fact that Carroll imagined his Alice as a seven-year-old—and that Wasikowska is about two decades older than that. The original 1871 novel is a must-read for its wild word play, including the classic nonsense poem "Jabberwocky"—which, with lines like "O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!" is as fun to recite as it is mind-bending.