Guest Review: 'The Eyre Affair'

When I began The Eyre Affair, it felt a little uncomfortable and was difficult to understand what alternate reality I had stepped into. This is probably because I knew pretty much zilch about the author, the setting or the main character prior to reading. The setting seemed futuristic, but then claimed to be the 80's. I found this unsettling until I realised that I was in a parallel universe with society built entirely around literature! What an amazing concept - people changing their names to John Milton, trading in currencies of rare manuscripts, crimes against literature are considered the major crimes in society, ordinary folk off the street coming to fisticuffs and joining cult groups about who the real author of Shakespeare's plays was. This world... was comforting! How good would it be to live in a world where, to help solve crimes, you have to read a book?! I was hooked.

I like the way that 'prequels' are coming out now to 'explain' occurrences in classic stories eg Wicked for The Wizard of Oz. I wonder if I'll ever read Jane Eyre again and not think about Hades throwing Bertha off the roof rather than her jumping. Luckily, I don't think this phenomenon ruins the originals.

I found the writing style easy to read and liked the quotes at the start of each chapter, which give the story depth. I thought Thursday was 'definitely written by a guy' at first, but by the end of the story, I was relating to her well. As a sciency person, I really liked the gene-splicing of extinct species and Mycroft's inventions. Boy, does this author have a colourful imagination.

Also, bonus points for the cover design. I like it.

A little bird tells me that this is a series, so I am planning on becoming delightfully embroiled in Fforde's world again.

ttfn,
Alison

Guest Challenge: 'Jane Eyre' & 'The Eyre Affair'

Hello everyone

Thank you for my invite to join you guys on your literary journey! I'm so excited... and also slightly daunted, since the last book review I wrote was 11 years ago! Wowzers.
Through your quest, which I am thoroughly delighted to become a part of, I'm hoping to learn how to extend my appreciation of the books I read and be encouraged to try out some new authors. So thanks again :)
(Luke: Yay! Another person has been roped into our glorious scheme to subvert mankind, one book-lover at a time! the wonderful thing that is the VBSC!)

The first book I'm going to tackle was assigned to me by Emma approximately 9 months ago. The reason for the delay in taking up this read, is due to the apparent necessity of first reading the classic, Jane Eyre. I have now enjoyably made it through this classic and am finally getting my teeth into The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde.

I'll report back on this book from the airship I'm planning to build and fly around the world in (inspired by Thursday's glorious description).

TTFN
Alison :)

Review 3: 'The Colour Of Magic'

I have three main people in my life with whom I discuss books. All three of them have read, loved, and recommended to me Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic.

This would be a much funnier post if I hated it and now have to search for three new friends with better taste in books, but actually I enjoyed it, too. Damn you guys.

The Colour of Magic is the first book in the Discworld series, so named because the world in which it is set is a disc, resting on the backs of four elephants, which rest on a giant turtle swimming through space. That's how the book begins, and it pretty much continues in that vein.

The first thing I thought when I started reading it was The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and check it out, I just noticed that the cover hails TCOM as "The wackiest and most original fantasy since Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy." It has the same sense of 'just go with it' that I got from that, where the author is taking you on this trip whether it makes sense at the moment or not, but probably it will all make some kind of sense later, and if not, the ride is going to be fun anyway so just carry on reading.

I liked the style of writing; it moved along nicely and was a nice quick read, but still managed to convey a whole different world. Pratchett has lots of fun with words (like the Rimbow and the Circumfence and inn-sewer-ants and reflected-sound-of-underground-spirits) and ideas (like how dragons only exist if you believe in them - and the practical consequences of not believing in them).

I'm told there are plenty more books in the series (whoa, apparently there are 38 total!). There is also a live-action miniseries, a couple of scenes of which I was shown in preparation for reading this book, which I would watch, just because I loved the Luggage, trotting along on its many many legs. I'm sure I will grab another Discworld book from the library sometime - one attraction is that series order doesn't matter - as they are a fast, fun read when you are in the mood for something a bit odd and clever and funny.

Challenge 4: Put Yourself In My Shoes

This challenge is a little bit different, and a big bit awesome.

Luke, here is your challenge...

Any four of the following:
1 x Babysitters Club book.
1 x Saddle Club book.
1 x Sweet Valley High or Sweet Valley Twins book.
1 x Nancy Drew book.
1 x Thoroughbred book.

BONUS: 1 x Goosebumps book.

Before you get all "But that's four books" on me, they are tiny; you will blaze through them. (And the bonus one makes five.)

These are the books I grew up with. They are the ones I collected and read and reread, and they are what made me the reader and the person I am today. They shaped my views on friends, horses, boys, siblings, the necessity of belonging to a club, and the preferable colour and length for a girl's hair. They will help you understand me, and many, many girls whose ages are plus or minus a bunch of years from mine.

Can't wait to hear your opinions on strawberry blonde vs long blonde hair and blue-green eyes.