Scenes in books are created by the author in order to set the mood. Authors are known to use techniques to provide a mood for a book that will have the reader on the edge of their seat. One such technique is to create scenes that will set the mood for the book. An example of this is found in The Phantom Tollbooth , where Milo and his friends visit mysterious and exciting places that set the mood. Similar to the Phantom Tollbooth, The Hobbit uses this technique, placing Bilbo and company in dark and gruesome scenes that contrast with warm and comfortable scenes. These books both demonstrate how a mood can be set by detailed scenes. Norton Juster uses scenes to set the mood in The Phantom Tollbooth . As Milo, the main character of the book, drives up to the Doldrums, he finds himself in a very moody and boring environment. His car stops, and after asking where he is, he gets an answer: "You're...in...the...Dol...drums." For example, "mile after mile after mile after mile, and everything became grayer and more monotonous. Finally the car just stopped altogether, and, hard as he tried, it wouldn't budge another inch. 'I wonder where I am,' said Milo in a very worried tone. 'You're...in..the..Dol...drums,' wailed a voice that sounded far away." Lethargarians, or people who do nothing, reside within the Doldrums. When Milo asks what they do, one replies: "Anything as long as it's nothing, and everything as long as it isn't anything." This setting sets the mood because, according to the Merriam Webster website, the doldrums mean a state or period in which there is no activity or improvement. The author uses this play on words to set a mood of no activity. In another scene, a creepy mood is set while Milo and company climb up the Mountains of Ignorance to rescue the princesses Rhyme and Reason. The author goes into great detail about how bad and large this mountain is. Thick air, oozing darkness, and the lack of light all set up the creepy mood and atmosphere. Even the Humbug, a grumpy character, is scared by the Mountains of Ignorance. According to the text, "The higher they went, the darker it became, though it wasn't the darkness of night, but rather more like a mixture of lurking shadows and evil intentions which oozed from the slimy moss-­covered cliffs and blotted out the light. A cruel wind shrieked through the rocks and the air was thick and heavy, as if it had been used several times before. On they went, higher and higher up the dizzying trail, on one side the sheer stone walls and brutal peaks towering above them, and on the other an endless, limitless, bottomless nothing." This mountain needs this creepy mood because there are many battles there in the story. In The Hobbit , J.R.R Tolkien starts off the book by introducing Bilbo, the hobbit, and his home. This home is unlike any other home, being built inside a hole. The comfortable feel of Bilbo's home contrasts greatly with the large and terrible environments of the latter parts of the book. This comfortable mood is set by the feeling of home and perfection. His home is warm and comfortable. It is described just like a real person's home so the reader can relate to it, but also includes a touch of oddity. To show this oddity and comfort, the author begins the book with this quote: "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-­hole, and that means comfort." It certainly feels like home in Bilbo's home, but it surely doesn't in the Lonely Mountain. T he Hobbit's Lonely Mountain also sets the mood. As the dwarves and Bilbo finally reach their destination of The Lonely Mountain to claim the dragon Smaug's treasure, the Mountain welcomes them with thunder and a horrible darkness. Lightning lights the Mountain's peak and Bilbo and company are frightened. According to the text, "Still more suddenly a darkness came on with dreadful swiftness! A black cloud hurried over the sky. Winter thunder on a wild wind rolled roaring up and rumbled in the Mountain, and lightning lit its peak. And beneath the thunder another blackness could be seen whirling forward;; but it did not come with the wind, it came from the North, like a vast cloud of birds, so dense that no light could be seen between their wings." This sets the mood for the later parts of the book, as they are significantly darker than the beginning, where Bilbo is at home. Home is comfortable and darkness is shown when Bilbo is in a dangerous place. In this part of the book readers truly realize how big and dark the Mountain is, setting the mood of darkness. One technique authors use is to use scenes to create excellent moods for their book. These scenes are created by the author to set the mood. Both The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien and The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster display their moods by creating gruesome or happy scenes. However, at the end of the books, both Milo and Bilbo triumph over evil. These scenes result in expertly crafted moods that keep readers page-­turning.