and no I do not mean next week on Thursday, I mean the star of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. The latest in the series is One of Our Thursdays is Missing, and it is the written one...not the real one, who is the star of the book, or is she really the real one suffering from some memory and delusion issues. I would definitely recommend starting this series at the beginning with The Eyre Affair, in which the premise of being able to move in and out of books is introduced and book tourism is huge. It is a clever fantasy premise that Fforde has carried through five previous books.
If you are not a reader these will be difficult to get through as there are frequent allusions to classic and contemporary literature and liberal references to various literary devices. (A former English teacher's nerdy fantasies in mystery form.) Each book does have a serious premise lurking under all the banter and this one is no different. Written Thursday's dilemma stems from her identity crisis as she grapples with being different from and maybe inferior to "real" Thursday. She is certainly leading a very different life and cannot quite decide if she is ok with that or not. But if you are not interested in introspective, humorous characters, then just read the series for the fun of romping through literature.
