Such an imagination! Where do authors find their ideas!! Probably in The Well of Lost Plots ( )

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There's a trial in Kafka's "Trial" (this chapter made my head spin so much I had to read it three times and then accept it would always baffle me; Franz would have been proud), a Miss Havisham so real she hops off the page and beats you with her stick for blaspheming (I don't dare read "Great Expectations" now; I'm actually afraid Dickens's potrait of her won't do justice to Jasper Fforde's...!), a loveable Cheshire Cat-turned librarian, the greatest Shakespeare discovery in the history of history, an all-too-realistic contemporary art exibition, plus more of everything you will have loved from the first book: Thursday's delightful time-travelling dad, her adorable dodo, her complicated love life; not to mention pure evil, alive and not, human and not.

This sent me scouting various Waterstone's for "The Well of Lost Plots" - which leads me to a gripe: why do clever, funny, precious authors like Jasper Fforde get so little shelf-space dedicated to them when, of all the entertaining (but not really of any aesthetic value) chick-lit of Katie Fforde, not a single title is missing? Books like this should be thrown at people's heads just so they come across them, not hidden like something to be ashamed of!

One minor note: do not try to start from here. Jasper Fforde's magical world is by this point far too developed for it to make much sense: this is not a series of stand-alone books, it is a continuous story that needs reading in the order it's been written... unless you want to end up very confused, and unable to understand what all the hype is about. Which would be a shame, because for once it is a highly justified hype. ( )

Mr Fforde once again creates an alternate world which, except for the guns and Goliath, sounds quite enticing. A world all about books? How awesome.

We meet up again with Thursday shortly after the conclusion to The Eyre Affair, everything seems to be going well. Enter a lost Shakespeare play, the Goliath Corporation and a brooding dodo, amongst other things. This is smart, laugh out loud fiction for literary lovers. ( )

Difficult to choose one of the fforde books. All are just wonderful! ( )

What a delight! Lots of fun for a book nerd. ( )

A fun and intriguing sequel to The Eyre Affair. Fforde continues to develop his alternate reality further and the results are highly entertaining. The book introduces a new villain, as well as a new plot element in the series, namely the agency Jurisfiction and Thursday's enlistment as an apprentice book-jumper. These two threads might have been woven together a little more snugly, but it's something you realize in hindsight - while reading you're too caught up in what's happening to notice.

If you liked [book:The Eyre Affair], picking this one up is well worth your time. ( )

Similar to The Eyre Affair (the first in this series), this book is part fantasy, part crime thriller, and part anything else the author can throw into the mix. This makes it a very interesting read, rather unlike my usual choice of book. My only caveat with this particular book in the series is that there are great deal of minor characters introduced who often do not re-appear until 50 or 100 pages later, by which point I have already forgotten who they are and what their significance is. If you have a better memory than me, you probably won't have the same problem and will thoroughly enjoy this escapist drama. ( )

The second in the Thursday Next series (the first is The Eyre Affair) starts soon after the first ends. Thursday is being inundated with requests for appearances on TV shows (she's even asked to create a workout video) after her adventures in the pages of Jane Eyre. The Goliath Corporation is none too happy with her treatment of Jack Schitt; meanwhile, Cordelia Flakk is chasing Thursday down for more PR appearances, and someone seems intent on killing Thursday by coincidence (decrease in entropy occurs every once in awhile, but I'll let Mycroft explain how that happens). As full of deliciously stupid puns and literary references as the first book, and not to be missed. ( )

I am enjoying this series. I have a feeling it's about to go downhill, however, but that will not deter me from reading the 3rd book anyway. I'd rather see it die and end in a ditch than wonder if it really does. ( )

http://geekylibrarian.wordpress.com/2... ( )

This is one of the few sequels that I can safely say is better than the original. The character of Mrs. Havisham and Thursday's crazy coincidences make this exponentially more hilarious than The Eyre Affair.

Mrs. Havisham is definitely the best part here. I've read Great Expectations, I know the character and thinking about her stomping around other books and loving fast cars with huge engines makes me giggle. There's a scene with Mrs. Havisham and the Red Queen warring over a boxed set of romance novels that completely undoes me everytime. It's too perfect!

Fforde's idea of a parallel universe where literature has become utterly important is well developed and the author shows such dedication to his creation that it's easy to believe and follow. His insane puns and continuing ability to twist words 17 ways past Sunday make his books engaging, as always. I am unsure if The Eyre Affair was Fforde's first book, but I wouldn't be surprised because this sequel shows more confidence in his writing abilities and more zeal on his subject. ( )

I didn't think I would get back into this series, despite having really enjoyed The Eyre Affair - I tried a couple of times to read this book and just wasn't feeling it. But this time, I liked it quite a bit. More book-jumping fun with our literary detective, Thursday Next, who saves the world from turning into pink goo in this one. I love the references to literary characters, the idea that book worlds are just as real as our world & go on about their separate business when the chapter is over, and the bizarre time-travelling events. At the end of this book, I was a little terrified because it seemed like Thursday might "move sideways" - ie, into a parallel universe - that was exactly like our own & part of the fun of these books are the twists that Fforde puts into our world, so I think that would have been a horrible move. Fortunately it did not happen - I won't spoil what DOES happen, though. ( )

http://radiergummi.wordpress.com/2009... ( )

Delightful audio version of Thursday Next's continuing adventures with SpecOps. I enjoyed this version much more than the reading of book one, certainly enough to read the next in order. ( )

Lost in a Good Book picks up where The Eyre Affair left off. It is very much a sequel in that I can’t really imagine someone reading Lost in a Good Book without having first read The Eyre Affair. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but I do think this book doesn’t quite stand on its own as well as the first one did. It is also clearly setting up for the next in the series, which annoys me a little. That said, it’s a fun book to read. Miss Havisham (yes, that one, with the musty wedding dress) is a hoot and while I’d never want to spend time with her in person, she’s a fun character.

http://archthinking.blogspot.com/2009... ( )

Fforde, Thursday Next, revisionist history, fantasy, book 3 ( )

This is a book about family. No, really. Just work with me for a moment.

True, this is actually a story about our intrepid hero, who has a pet dodo and a time traveling dad, who saves the world and doesn't get any credit, who can't get a promotion at work, and who lives in a word where people really, really like books and she herself can, with greater or lesser success, pop in and out of them.

But, holy shit, if this isn't a book chock full of cutesy nuclear family.

My evidence:
Our hero is now married and, as is revealed a few pages in, pregnant.
Related, there's a character named Braxton Hicks.
The whole story is about how her husband was kidnapped out of existence and how she wants to get him back.
He was napped by the brother of a criminal she busted in the last book.
The resurrected neanderthals (you heard me) are sterile and desperately want to be able to reproduce and not go extinct a second time, to the point of minor terrorism.
Our hero saves the day with the help of mom, dad, uncle, brother, and granny.
The other female characters, mom and granny in particular, keep intuiting that our hero is pregnant.
Oh! The dodo bird that is our hero's pet and previously assumed by all to be male turns out to be female and lays an egg.
Dad saves our hero's life and then later sacrifices his own (sorta, time travel and all) to save the world.
Miss Havisham makes an appearance, and while you may argue that she's not a character that's about family, this is a case of definition by absence.

I could go on.

That said, while we've got a book that is about something else, but really has a lot to do with family, it's not too bad. I don't think most people would even notice it. And the family business doesn't come off in a nutty, conservative way. Our hero is, after all, an ex-military member of the police force (and so were mom and granny), a working wife and mother-to-be (the husband's a good guy), humorous, and smart enough to have built her own dodo from the molecule up.

In any case, Fforde has written another good book, one that, like the last, is more entertaining the more familiar you are with literature, history, and other middle-to-high-brow culture. It, like the Shrek movies, has something for every one, because even if you don't get all the references, there's still something for you to get and is fairly accessible in terms of reading level, length, et cetera.

If you want to read this book, you're better of starting from the beginning, with The Eyre affair. And if you make it to the end of this one, you'll probably also want to read the next one, because our hero has not yet rescued her Nigel (his name is Landen), so the story clearly isn't over. And my edition has the first chapter of the next book in it for a teaser, so I guess I have to read on.

I forgot I had read this. I had it listed here and thought it was a mistake and erased the month and date and relisted it is Still Reading. I read the whole book and recalled all of it so I know I had finished it but can't recall the month. I am going to list it as April 2007.

I love the action. I love the way Fforde writes. I wish I were more familiar with some of the characters from the classics but I can manage. ( )

Often sequels are not as good as the orginal. In the case of Lost in a Good Book, it exceeds Eyre Affair in many ways. It is more fun, more exciting, the jokes are worse and more enjoyable in every way. Thank you Fforde for a fun read. ( )

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde exceded my expectations. After reading The Eyre Affair, I was ready to chuckle my way through some more bookish banter and literary detection by Thursday Next, but Fforde moves her right along into a whole new structure beyond SpecOps and the Prose Portal. Once Thursday finds her way into the Great Library, she is apprenticed to Miss Havisham to learn the ways (and means) of Jurisfiction. ( )

The story of Thursday Next continues as she uses her common sense and bravado to battle wits with the Goliath Corporation and several other villains as well. Thursday meets Miss Havisham in this story and learns to book jump.
It was easier for me to enjoy this story because I didn't have the hurdle of learning about the world Thursday lives in. I found it a bit difficult to follow at times, so many new characters were added to the list, but then I wasn't able to just sit and read it either. I love the relationship Thursday has with her husband and loved ones. At first glance it seems very casual, but then you realize there is a deep affection. I also enjoy the spurious chapter with Spike the undead hunter in it; it seems the author has so much fun writing about him. Now I have to rush out and find the next novel in the series, since this is a cliffhanger. ( )

The second book in the Thursday Next series, and like The Empire Strikes Back is better than its predecessor and a stand-out in the series. It also begins a story arc that continues in the next two books. Of course, you should just read them all. The Thursday Next series is just one of the best examples of fantastic, alternative historic, time traveling, satirical, police procedural, and humorist writing out there today.

“Growth purely for its own sake is the philosophy of the cancer…” (p. 97)
“My father said that it was a delightfully odd – and dangerously self-destructive – quirk of humans the we were far more interested in pointless trivia than in genuine news stories.” (p. 141) ( )

The absurdities in this storyline take front stage. Thursday's "real" life is hardly in focus at all as she is introduced to Jurisfiction and is trying to cope with crises in her personal life. Again, very enjoyable. ( )

*Sigh* Things started off well, but then the book careens off into elements that hampered the first book; Scenes that at first appear as plot points, but in the end turn out to be merely self-indulgence.

It's almost as if the author had ideas for crazy things he'd like to write about (The Red Queen and Miss Havisham fighting over bargain books, Thursday and Spike vs. the SEB.s), but instead of moving the plot along they just slow things down. I'd like to see more crisp storytelling.

Still there are a lot of funny and entertaining moments...even if the story doesn't really hold together that well. ( )