Lost in a Good Book, and the rest of the Thursday Next Series, Jasper Fforde

Lost in a Good Book was, as Jasper Fforde shares on his website, an unplanned sequel, demanded by his publishing company.  So, it takes a different angle to the first book, much expanding the available world to explore.  Basically, it is possible to jump into fiction, or Bookworld and bookjump between fiction.  Thursday Next becomes involved with Jurisfiction, the fiction policing agency.

This is a whole world of awesome right here, and Fforde explores it with style.  I love the bookworld, and Jurisfiction is just a genius idea for exploring it.  Any book that can convincingly include Miss Havisham as a main character has my vote.

I love the political and social commentary in the alternate Britain "real" world, too.  The Goliath Corporation is particularly awful (ly hilarious).

I've cheated somewhat by smooshing the rest of the series into this review.  Once we get to Lost in a Good Book, we've got the gist of the rest of the series from here [which are: The Well of Lost Plots; Something Rotten; First Among Sequels; One of Our Thursdays is Missing].

What more to say?  These are great fun, smart, witty, page turners, with plenty to think about and feel cool about knowing (did I mention there are classics littered all through these?).  Most bookish peeps are going to enjoy them, though you don't have to be bookish to like Fforde's style.  Thursday Next is one awesome heroine, she's smart, funny, and solves everything.  In the series she also has kids.  So it's quite the feminist win, too.

Read 'em.  They're fun.

7.5/10 overall (none are as awesome as the first).

These were a range of purchased "real" books, and Kindle ereads.

[All pics are from Jasper Fforde's site, click through to view]

The Eyre Affair, Thursday Next Series, Jasper Fforde

I've been reading the Thursday Next BookWorld series as some great bookish entertainment for the past few weeks, when reading has been slow and life has been busy.  The Eyre Affair is everything the blogosphere says it is, witty, entertaining, literary, laugh-out-loud funny.  If you haven't read this already, put it on your list.  And click here for Fforde's site [seriously, click there, it's hilarious].  Take note that the book contains total spoilers for Jane Eyre, so if by chance you've not got to that one yet, and want to be surprised, don't read The Eyre Affair. 

I don't have a lot to add to a strong recommendation to read this one, really.  It's a snappy, clever book set in an alternate reality Britain, where book people are real.  The central character, Thursday Next, works for a Special Ops unit in Literary Detection.  The classics are front and centre in this version of reality, and when circumstances unfold that threaten the very existence of Jane Eyre (from the novel, that is), it's high crime indeed. 

Definitely check it out. Fforde is a prolific author, and has a number of other series I'm going to check out, his style is witty, well read, and snappy, reminded me of Hitchhiker's Guide.  Good stuff, and British not American, which is nice to see occasionally.  (Is it just me, or do all the best comedies come from the UK?).

This was a library read.

9/10 for a great idea, snappy plot, clever dialogue, and awesome use of the classics.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Seth Grahame-Smith

85% Austen, 15% zombie, this mash-up of the original book was published in 2009. Did I read all of it, yup.  Did I love it, ummm...it was alright, but relying on the strength of Austen to get you through is simply not enough.  I think this kind of book actually has potential to be a lot of fun, and yes, I got some laughs out of it as it stood (mostly the first few chapters, the mix-up of genres is lovely and fresh here), but I felt the author just didn't work hard enough for those laughs.  I know this is comedy, but why not take it another level, be smarter about it, weave it in a litte closer.  Too much of it felt like what it was, paragraphs added to another book.  Adding more backstory, making it more consistent, showing some more of the brilliance of the original, would have got my admiration more than some zombie story added in, and sometimes sitting awkwardly, waiting for laughs.  It went on too long, basically.  The initial idea is great, you enjoy the first few chapters, then it feels too much like the author went "oh, and now I've gotta keep this going for another 200 pages, crap!"

I know, I know, perhaps I cared too much, but I've read some great humourous work over the years, some smart stuff, and I wish one of those writers had got their hands on this idea.  I'm not sure I'll bother with any of the other mash ups, this is a cute idea, probably only worth a short story length of attention, that had some promise but relied too heavily on the brilliance of Austen to see it through. 

5/10 (with a 10/10 for the original idea itself, which is hilarious, well worth reading the first few chapters for the initial chuckle, then putting it down at that).

Another eRead on Kindle for iPad.

War and Peace - Read Along Check In #2

I'm not finished up to the set point for the check in (over at A Literary Odyssey) yet!  I've just been busy and distracted, and War and Peace has been taking a back seat.

I will say that I'm enjoying it a little more in this part than the first one.  Some of the war scenes weren't as dull as I found the first lot, and there was some interesting stuff on how the army worked, and on the hospitals (blerg!) in wartime.

The random masonry was odd but interesting, Pierre's conversion fervour, marriage issues and duel had a deft touch to it.  I'm enjoying the parts with Andrei/Andrew in them, he's an aloof fellow, but I like him!  He's one of the few characters that I'm interested in, to be honest.  I like Rostov as well, despite the fact he's a bit of an idiot.  He's got a kind of charm that is appealing.  Boris is a manipulative self-serving bounder, but he's not bad as a character, I feel relatively invested in his success.

The women are not so well drawn. There's not much on them, certainly not as individuals, and what little there is is stereotypical to the extreme.  Loyal maidens, cruel heartbreakers, innocent virgins.  Sigh.  None are as thoughtfully drawn as even the more minor male players.  They are ciphers, to be acted upon by the real protagonists of the story.  It's kinda irritating, to say the least.

According to my Kindle (oh cruel Kindle, how you constantly let me know how behind I am and how very far I have to go!!) I am 37% of the way through the book.  I think I'm several chapters behind the read-a-long, in my edition I'm up to Book 6: 1808-1810, about a third of the way through that "book".  Prince Andrew/Andrei is making his way in society and worshipping at the altar of Speranski.  Pierre is doing Masonry things. 

I'm trying to catch up, but at least the book is passing by.  Unless something radical happens, I'm pretty certain it's not going to be one I love, or re-read.  But it's on the bloody list, so it will be done, at least!

I love this pic from the classic film - I'm going to have to watch this again when I'm done reading it.

Elizabeth Gaskell Read A Long

Sounds just lovely, and as you can get this book for free as an e-read, cheap too!  Sign up here at Gaskell Blog.

I've read the first three chapters so far and am really liking it, it's a finely drawn story of a girl and her family.  At Gaskell Blog there are several great posts on the region, history and writing of the novel for the Day One Readalong, it's been great getting so much information about a book (so easily :D).

This one isn't on the 1001 list, the Gaskell books are North and South (which I've read) and Cranford (which I'm pretty sure I've read, but can't really remember for sure, so when that happened I left it as unread).  I'm hoping Cranford comes up as a readalong too.

At least it's a nice change from War and Peace, which I'm still wrestling with *sigh*.

1001 Book Challenge, being a joiner

Pub Writes is hosting a 1001 challenge this year where you can commit to as few as 5 books off the list, or as many as 16+  So I signed up for it.  It's great to read the other linked blogs as well.  Hop on over if you feel like joining me!

Revisiting the maths, how many books do I really read a month?

Okay, this is why anything involving more than the basic 1+1 = something that makes sense is not possible on the amount of sleep I am currently getting. 

If I read 100 (+) books a year, that is NOT equal to 4 books a month.  See how that doesn't work? 

I blame my 2 year old, who thinks that 1am is an *awesome* bedtime, now for over a week running.  *sound of hair tearing and the gnashing of teeth*

So, if worked out accurately with actual maths, turns out it works like this:
   

 

Because you're 37 years old, female and from Australia, you're likely to die in another 46 years when you're 83. At your current reading rate, you could read 5032 books if you wanted to, so you're on target to read the remaining 1144 and finish your plan when you're 47 years old. That should give you plenty of time for some of life's other pleasures.

 Now that makes a tad more sense to me!  I put in 9 books a month, which is doable I think, on average over a year (I hope!).  It's the aforementioned toddler that is the issue here.

The irony is that my first proper book for 2011 is The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, which is NOT on the list.  I'm enjoying it, in a confronted kind of way, and will write something on it when I'm done.

I thought I'd join a reading challenge or two as well to share and keep me on track.  There's a great book blogging community that I read but haven't participated in before, that I would love to tap into, and challenges are a nice way to say "hi!".  *waves*

I think I'll do a list of the first few 1001 books I plan to start with, I'm picking some favourite "I always meant to read that" books to ease me in. 

I am also joining a War and Peace challenge, the fab idea of Allie at A Literary Odyssey, as I've always shied away from that mighty tome, despite my otherwise great love of classic lit. I'm afraid I've always found the very idea of War and Peace the epitome of tedium, but hey, it's on the bloody list so I've got to get to it eventually.  *rolls eyes*  Here is the basics of the challenge...

We will have four posts covering the following:

• January 15, 2011: The first check-in will focus on volume 1. In my edition it is about 295 pages.
• January 31, 2011: The second check-in will focus on volume 2. In my edition it is about 306 pages.
• February 12, 2011: The third check-in will focus on volume 3. In my edition it is about 332 pages (the longest section).
• February 28, 2011: The fourth check-in will cover volume 4 and the 2-part epilogue. These sections are about 282 pages in my edition.

It may seem like a lot and it probably is, but we will be reading around 300 pages every two weeks. That is incredibly doable! There are 365 chapters in the novel, so the chapters are short (something I always love in long books).

If you'd like to sign up, do it now, the first section has to be done by the 15th, yikes!

Happy Reading!