What about meeting Hamlet or chatting with the Chesire Cat? Have you ever wondered what it would be like if books were treated as gold and the boundary line between fiction and reality was softened?
Jaser Fforde has. And he creates an epic adventure in this world full of mystery in the Thursday Next series.
I began with book one--The Eyre Affair, the introduction to a world full of strange ohenomenon such as Chronoguards going rogue, neanderthals conducting trains, and secret Shakespearean works being discovered. The New York Times calls the series "Harry Potter for adults."
I fell in love with the Eyre Affair and its witty humor. An excerpt from the book:
"Why is a raven like a writing desk?
Because Poe wrote on both.
People who know literature will enjoy this series as it alludes to so many other books. It's difficult to stop reading: I read it in all my spare time while on the boat in Germany.
The leading lady, Thursday Next, is a sketchy character--I never could get to the point of knowing exactly what she was going to do. It kept the story interesting, but also a bit aggravating when she would do something that seemed completely out of character. But it doesn't ruin the enjoyment of the book.
She is a Special Operative-27: Literary Detective. There are other divisions in SpecOps that are equally as imaginative and most are mysterious. She finds a way into Jane Eyre to defeat an arch enemy, and ends up changing the ending of the book (for the better.)
I haven't felt this way about a book in a very long time, and all I want to do is read.
The story gets even better in the second book, Lost in a Good Book, as Fforde continues to layer the characters and plotline with small circumstances mentioned in the first book. Thursday dives into and out of books and meets all sorts of characters that jump from their book to the real world.
I want to be Thursday Next. Except not as sketchy.
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