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First Among Sequels
If you haven't yet discovered the joy and delight and sheer silly fun that is reading a Jasper Fforde novel, then you have a treat in store. Fforde writes about books, about reading books, about the world within the book, about the interaction between text and reader (not so much author) and does it all with utterly hilarious jokes. It took me a long time to notice that the romantic male lead is called Landen Parke-Laine. Try saying it out loud. Then add in the fact that his parents are Houson and Bildon.
Puns aside, the Thursday Next novels deal with time travel, goo, the Goliath corporation, smuggling cheese out of the People's Republic of Wales, and how to restore the kidnapped Jane Eyre to her novel which, since it is written in the first person, can't exist at all without her.
I read the fifth TN book on the plane last week. Fforde has also written two books in the Nursery Crimes series which are also fun. But not as much fun as the Thursday Next books, in my opinion.
Puns aside, the Thursday Next novels deal with time travel, goo, the Goliath corporation, smuggling cheese out of the People's Republic of Wales, and how to restore the kidnapped Jane Eyre to her novel which, since it is written in the first person, can't exist at all without her.
I read the fifth TN book on the plane last week. Fforde has also written two books in the Nursery Crimes series which are also fun. But not as much fun as the Thursday Next books, in my opinion.
Here's Fforde on the development of the book:
And this is Fforde on what happens when a book gets read. From the point of view of the characters in the book.
I think that's fascinating. The words on the page give the 'bare description necessary' but it is the reader who makes it come alive. It's not that the reader changes the text - it's always Geppetto's workshop, with burned Pinocchio and something cooking on the stove, but each reader imagines the workshop into life in their own way. I think those random things - the laugh and the castle - are the associations in the reader's mind that are, technically unrelated to the text, but through some experience of the reader, come together.
Anyway, these books are fun and clever and if you've ever read a book and enjoyed it, you'll love these!
The only annoying thing was that the first edition I bought at the airport doesn't have the footnotes printed. The Footnoterphone is an important communication device in the Book World and several important conversations take place in this way. So now I have to send in the title page and get a replacement copy. Do make sure you buy the corrected edition!
For thousands of years OralTrad was the only Story Operating System and indeed it is still in use today. The recordable Story Operating System began with ClayTablet V2.1 and went through several competing systems (WaxTablet, Papyrus, VellumPro) before merging into the award winning SCROLL, which was upgraded eight times before being swept aside by the all new and clearly superior BOOK V1. Stable, easy to store and transport, compact and with a workable index, BOOK has led the way for nearly eighteen hundred years.
And this is Fforde on what happens when a book gets read. From the point of view of the characters in the book.
As Pinocchio slept on, the reading suddenly swelled like a breaking ocean roller and crossed the room in front of us, a crest of heightened reality that moved through us and imparted a warm feeling of well-being. But more than that, a rare thing in fiction, a delicate potpourri of smells, Freshly cut wood, cooking, spice, damp - and Pinocchio's scorched legs, which I recognised were carved from cherry. There was more, too, a strange jumble of faces, a young girl laughing and a derelict castle in the moonlight. The smells grew stronger until I could taste them in my mouth, the dust and grime in the room seemingly accentuated until there was a faint hiss and a ploof sound and the enhanced feelings dropped away in an instant. Everything once more returned to the limited reality we had experience when we had arrived - the bare description necessary for the room to be Geppetto's workshop.
I think that's fascinating. The words on the page give the 'bare description necessary' but it is the reader who makes it come alive. It's not that the reader changes the text - it's always Geppetto's workshop, with burned Pinocchio and something cooking on the stove, but each reader imagines the workshop into life in their own way. I think those random things - the laugh and the castle - are the associations in the reader's mind that are, technically unrelated to the text, but through some experience of the reader, come together.
Anyway, these books are fun and clever and if you've ever read a book and enjoyed it, you'll love these!
The only annoying thing was that the first edition I bought at the airport doesn't have the footnotes printed. The Footnoterphone is an important communication device in the Book World and several important conversations take place in this way. So now I have to send in the title page and get a replacement copy. Do make sure you buy the corrected edition!