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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
WOW do I love Jasper Fforde's books! I like his Nursery Crime series but my heart belongs to Thursday Next. When I saw that Fforde had written a fifth, my credit card almost melted from the speed with which I purchased it.
Not only is Fforde's prose immediately engaging and the premise of these books delightful (The ability to jump into books? Sign me up for that!), but he also involves the reader and his/her literary experience regardless of the level.
To be reading a book that mentions not only one of my most beloved children's series (Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson) but also includes a character is just encountered a month ago (Dr. Temperance Brennan of "Bones" fame) - it's like winning a small lottery! He allows the reader to pat him/herself on the back for recognizing many literary references while not making him/her feel ignorant about the hundreds that are probably missed.
His commentary on the current state of world affairs is also wonderful...as the Council of Genres discusses reclassifying several classic works - "...Orwell's 1984 is no longer TRULY fiction so has been reallocated to non-fiction." "...Racy Novel gets along with Comedy and Erotica fine, but Ecclesiastical and Feminist don't really think Racy Novel is worthy of a genre at all and often fire salvos of long-winded intellectual dissent across the border, which might do more damage if anyone in Racy Novel could understand them. For its part, Racy Novel sends panty raiding parties into its neighbors, which wasn't welcome in Feminism and even less in Ecclesiastical - or was it the other way around?"
Love this one also: "Books suffer wear and tear...For this reason all books have to go into the maintenance bay for a periodic refit, either every thirty years or every million readings, whichever comes first. For those books that suffer a high initial readership but then lose it through boredom or insufficient reader intellect, a partial refit may be in order. Salmon Thrusty's intractable masterpiece The Demonic Couplets has had its first two chapters rebuilt six times, but the rest is relatively unscathed."
Throughout the book - Fforde makes his love of books (of the writing process/relationship between author and reader, really) abundantly clear. Thinks Thursday, "Reading, I had learned, was as creative a process as writing, sometimes more so. When we read of the dying rays of the setting sun or the boom and swish of the incoming time, we should reserve as much praise for ourselves as for the author. After all - the reader is doing all the work - the writer might have died long ago." Last quote - on poetry: "Whereas story is processed in the mind in a straightforward manner, poetry bypasses rational thought and goes straight to the limbic system and lights it up like a brushfire. It's the crack cocaine of the literary world."
So combine a love of reading with a good mystery, a world where cheese is an illegal but much desired substance, there is a Toast Advisory board and the issues of the day are a declining read rate, a huge surplus of stupidity and short attention spans seem to be the order of the day...and I'm all in.
Can't wait for the next installment!!!
Not only is Fforde's prose immediately engaging and the premise of these books delightful (The ability to jump into books? Sign me up for that!), but he also involves the reader and his/her literary experience regardless of the level.
To be reading a book that mentions not only one of my most beloved children's series (Moomintroll books by Tove Jansson) but also includes a character is just encountered a month ago (Dr. Temperance Brennan of "Bones" fame) - it's like winning a small lottery! He allows the reader to pat him/herself on the back for recognizing many literary references while not making him/her feel ignorant about the hundreds that are probably missed.
His commentary on the current state of world affairs is also wonderful...as the Council of Genres discusses reclassifying several classic works - "...Orwell's 1984 is no longer TRULY fiction so has been reallocated to non-fiction." "...Racy Novel gets along with Comedy and Erotica fine, but Ecclesiastical and Feminist don't really think Racy Novel is worthy of a genre at all and often fire salvos of long-winded intellectual dissent across the border, which might do more damage if anyone in Racy Novel could understand them. For its part, Racy Novel sends panty raiding parties into its neighbors, which wasn't welcome in Feminism and even less in Ecclesiastical - or was it the other way around?"
Love this one also: "Books suffer wear and tear...For this reason all books have to go into the maintenance bay for a periodic refit, either every thirty years or every million readings, whichever comes first. For those books that suffer a high initial readership but then lose it through boredom or insufficient reader intellect, a partial refit may be in order. Salmon Thrusty's intractable masterpiece The Demonic Couplets has had its first two chapters rebuilt six times, but the rest is relatively unscathed."
Throughout the book - Fforde makes his love of books (of the writing process/relationship between author and reader, really) abundantly clear. Thinks Thursday, "Reading, I had learned, was as creative a process as writing, sometimes more so. When we read of the dying rays of the setting sun or the boom and swish of the incoming time, we should reserve as much praise for ourselves as for the author. After all - the reader is doing all the work - the writer might have died long ago." Last quote - on poetry: "Whereas story is processed in the mind in a straightforward manner, poetry bypasses rational thought and goes straight to the limbic system and lights it up like a brushfire. It's the crack cocaine of the literary world."
So combine a love of reading with a good mystery, a world where cheese is an illegal but much desired substance, there is a Toast Advisory board and the issues of the day are a declining read rate, a huge surplus of stupidity and short attention spans seem to be the order of the day...and I'm all in.
Can't wait for the next installment!!!
Love this series. This one was exceptionally good. Really liked the addition of the written Thursdays.
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Set fourteen years after the last book, we find Thursday running the Acme Carpet company since Spec Ops has been disbanded. Luckily, we soon find that this is a front for underground Spec Ops operations, which itself is a front for Thursday's Jurisfiction work. Good book in the series, leaves a cliffhanger of an ending though.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced