Book Recommendation

11/21/10

First of all, a little over a week ago, I splurged. I bought two books: Ender in Exile, by one of my favorite authors, Orson Scott Card, and The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde. It was a splurge because I was actually at Barnes and Noble, and I couldn't really afford it, but I hadn't bought myself any books in a VERY LONG TIME. (Granted, I've been trying to stick with the ones in my personal library that I haven't read yet, but that's a different blog post.)

I read Ender in Exile first, because I knew I'd like it because (like I said) Card is one of my favorite authors. (I even did a book review on Ender's Game over on Lydia Sharp's blog way back in 2009.) It was a great read that I might write about some day.

But then I began Fforde's The Eyre Affair.

I haven't read something so intellectually entertaining in a VERY LONG TIME. (Granted, I've been doing homework, and, let's face it, college textbooks aren't the most entertainingly written works.) But Fforde's witty novel about Thursday Next, her world, and her work floored me. Enough so, in fact, that once I scrape together enough money, I'm going to go back to Barnes and Noble and buy myself the next book, Lost in a Good Book. That's what I get for working at my campus's Writing Center and seeing what my fellow tutors are reading and getting hooked from reading excerpts of the fourth book in the series. The tutor I saw reading Fforde said that the reason she loved Bronte's Jane Eyre is because of Fforde's The Eyre Affair. My love comes from the opposite--I found it more clever because I like Jane Eyre (and for the reasons listed below).

A big reason that I absolutely loved The Eyre Affair was because the world is so absurd, yet it's the characters' world, and so it's all commonplace to them. The tone of the novel seems to be somewhere between journal, detective novel, and continual wordplay. Time travel, hardcore literary fans, and novel characters that can jump from their pages are all regular sights to Thursday.

If I was still in high school with a specified lights' out, this would have become a flashlight book. It took me about a day and a half, two days max, to read, and I will gladly read it again.

One thing is certain: I may not necessarily want to live in Thursday's world, but I sure enjoyed visiting it. I definitely recommend picking up The Eyre Affair and giving it a chance.

-Ashlee