Lewis Carroll’s Guide for Insomniacs

Here is the perfect gift for all insomniacs: a feast of intriguing puzzles, rhymes, limericks, and other entertainments devised by the author of Alice in Wonderland to help pass what he called “the wakeful hours.”

“The dilemma my friends suppose me to be in,” said Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland, “has, for its two horns, the endurance of a sleepless night, and the adoption of some recipe for inducing sleep.” In this delightful book, therefore, are collected a splendid variety of the things he devised to help rid himself of insomnia.

They range from simple number problems and calming calculations to a number of whimsical activites: composing rhymes at midnight, conjuring up ghosts, planning dreams, devising shadow shows, and writing in the dark by means of Nyctograph. Take Carroll’s advice and the “wakeful hours” can be turned to your advantage.