Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde

Eight out of 10 people who showed up for this discussion managed to lose themselves in this book of British nonsense, and 6 of them found their way to the end. Four had read Fforde before.

This is the second book in the Thursday Next series. Four have been published so far and a fifth is due out the summer of 2005. The first book, The Eyre Affair, which we read last year, is a stand-alone book. This second book, however, is part of a continuing series in which Literary Detective Thursday tries to retrieve her husband after the evil Goliath Corporation eradicated him from time.

Many of us liked this book better than the first one because it had more plot. Those of us who had read the first book were used to the overwhelming number of elements Fforde crams into his world (time travel, alternate history, puns on names, Suckers and Biters, dodos, and romps through literature), and were happy to revisit them, but at the same time relieved he hadn’t added more. Two of our favorite spots in this book were Kafka’s The Trial and Poe’s “The Raven.”

We found a good balance of satire and silliness in this book and would recommend it to fans of British whimsy.

— Sandy Kayser