Result – DaneCobain.com

Title: Lost in a Good Book

Author: Jasper Fforde

Type: Fiction

Page Count/Review Word Count: 376

Rating: 4*/5

Jasper Fforde – Lost in a Good Book

This is the second book in Fforde’s Thursday Next series and I honestly don’t know why it took me so long to get around to it. I really liked the first book and I was pumped about continuing, and I even bought a copy of this book immediately after finishing the first one. It just took me a while to get around to it.

Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why I didn’t enjoy it as much as I was expecting to. I think I’d subconsciously geared myself up for a mind-blowing read, and it left me a little disappointed with the end result. Sure, it has all the hallmarks of Fforde’s storytelling, including the Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams influences that you’re probably expecting if you read the first book. But for me at least, the novelty is starting to wear off.

That’s not to say that it isn’t a funny book. It’s just that after a while, it feels like the same joke over and over again. Then there’s Fforde’s complex world building. In the first book, I thought it was incredible. In this one, I found it hard to focus on the story line while simultaneously building up a bigger picture of how Fforde’s world works.

Jasper Fforde

Perhaps that’s a problem on my part. In fact, I’m pretty sure it is, and I did still enjoy it overall. It’s the type of book where there’s something there for everyone, even if some of it goes over your head and you’re just enjoying the one liners and occasional in-jokes. Fforde is also a master of using popular culture to make his stories – and his characters – more relatable, and even though this book is a good few years old by now, it doesn’t really make any difference. The popular culture that Fforde references is the popular culture of books and literature and so there’s plenty to pick up on if you’re a big reader.