Books I Want To Talk About discussion

Please discuss Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde.

Please remember to indicate "spoiler" if you are going to reveal any plot points.

How did I not see that you added this book? This and The Well of Lost Plots were my favorites in the series.

Yeah, I added this shortly after I finished The Eyre Affair. I do plan on actually reading them and making comments. Oh the to-read list--ye mighty, mighty pile!

I actually liked Lost in a Good Book a bit more that The Eyre Affair. I think I just had to get used to Thursday's world a little bit. I still have a hard time trying to describe these books to people - just today I tried telling my mom what The Well of Lost Plots was about (I'm currently reading that one) and I didn't do a very good job because she just gave me that polite "smile and nod" look. haha!

It's been a year or so since I finished The Eyre Affair and a friend brought me ALL the Thursday Next books. I'm moving through this one on a tear, but I think that I liked The Eyre Affair better. Don't know why, maybe the novelty has worn off, and T.N. seems to be spending less time actually interacting with the books in this one. She's move occupied with slowing time and changing time. I've heard that The Well of Lost Plots is the best of the T.N. books.

The Well of Lost Plots is definitely my favorite, but this one is essential to setting up the plot of TWoLP. I loved her running into the characters in the BookWorld, although, you're right, she doesn't actually change books the way she did in TEA.

POTENTIAL SPOILER:
I LOVE that she keeps running into the Book People, and that when they are at the end of their speaking, or the end of a chapter that they just have free time and can go talk to the real people. Here's a question I have about Thursday interacting with the Book People though.... she brings things back from the real world to the Book World, and what effect could that possibly have on the Book People. It's not addressed, but I would think that could be a very fruitful idea for Fforde.

Well, it seems like they are sort of like actors. Many of the book people's real personalities are not at all what their characters are in their books.

While I didn't like this book quite as well as the The Eyre Affair I loved the part where SPOILER ALERT
Miss Haversham and the Red Queen fight it out in the Filene's Basementesque battle for the signed set of romance novels! I'm stuck spending a lot of time in bed due to a back problem and my husband is at the library right now picking up The Well of Lost Plots for me.

Has anyone successfully recommended Fforde to friends? I preferred Lost in a Good Book over Eyre Affair, but only marginally. But when I tell friends to read /any/ of them (and said friends take my advice, even the literary-ier ones among them), I get responses to the effect of - "uh, don't recommend any books to me any more."

How do you describe this book to people?

I recommended them to Meghan and a couple of other people from GR. I think most liked The Eyre Affair. Not sure how many have read the rest of the series.

Have you read the Nursery Crimes series?

I have, they're okay. I like Thursday Next much better.

Aerin - I've read the first Nursery Crimes book as well as the Eyre Affair. I have to say Sarah enjoyed them more than I did. Although I will agree with her on that I enjoyed EA better than NC.

When another book club did EA, most of the people liked it, but said they wished it was more literary. They felt it was a bit too "sci-fi" for them. And that's the part that I preferred.

I think the reason I didn't love them was that I don't think they're very good mysteries. I really enjoyed the premise and the use of the characters (the names, the situations, etc.) but if you're just looking at this as strictly as a mystery, I've read better.

That said, I do have the rest of the series to read and I'm looking forward to reading Lost.

Meghan - interesting point that the Thursday Next books don't really work as mysteries. Only the first book had any real resolution, probably because he didn't know at that time that it would turn into a series. Although, in a completely offbeat way, it might come closer to actual police work than most crime novels do.

I, too, have trouble recommending these books. They're very difficult to describe. I have the same trouble with The Good Fairies of New York.

He didn't know it was going to be a series? Because book 4 actually wraps up a few things from way back in book 1 (like Thursday seeing herself at the roadside diner).

I really like this series but truthfully, I had to re-read several parts so that I stopped going "HuH?" I also think this was a bigger problem for me in Well of Lost Plots than in Eyre Affair or Lost in a Good Book. My favorite thing about these is that it seems to mix fantasy with scifi, mystery and of all things, literature, all rolled into one. Besides, where else do you have a character with a dodo for a pet?

Sarah wrote: "The Well of Lost Plots is definitely my favorite, but this one is essential to setting up the plot of TWoLP. I loved her running into the characters in the BookWorld, although, you're right, she do..."

I just read in some other group that the person said to skip this on (LIAGB) and go straight to TWoLP. I don't think they actually meant skip the book, but to emphasize the point that the second book isn't as good as the third.

So far I'm enjoying myself, probably because it's been 2 years since I read TEA and I didn't particularly love the story of TEA, whereas this one intrigues me.

Karyn The Pirate wrote: "I really like this series but truthfully, I had to re-read several parts so that I stopped going "HuH?" I also think this was a bigger problem for me in Well of Lost Plots than in Eyre Affair or L..."

So I'm pretty sure this isn't a spoiler, but....



I love that the dodo turned out to be a she!