Reading

I've been reading Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels recently and thoroughly enjoying them. I would recommend them wholesale to others except that I recognize their limited appeal. Okay, here's the premise and I will let you decide whether to seek them out: It's 1985 in an alternate universe, where literature is at the center of pop culture and Zeppelins dominate the skies. Dodos have been brought back from extinction and a megacorporation named Goliath has influence over all aspects of government. The British continue their war with Russia over the Crimea and Winston Churchill is unknown. Thursday Next, daughter of a time traveling Chronoguard renegade, is employed as a literary detective, someone who authenticates newfound works by long-dead authors and deals with people who fancy themselves characters out of classic fiction. In the first book, The Eyre Affair, Thursday's past familiarity with the loathsome Acheron Hades puts her at the center of a deadly--and often surreal--manhunt. Both of them end up inside the world of Jane Eyre. Sound good to you?

On vacation I read The Jane Austen Book Club. Its reviews had been decidedly mixed. Some had listed it as a funny (as in humorous) sort of book but I see it as much more a human drama. Maybe a dramedy. Anyway, I found it lovely and thought provoking. It is the story of a reading group brought together by one dog-loving, single middle aged woman and her best friend who is going through a divorce. The other members have been selected for their love of Austen or their potential contribution to the group. Each member takes charge of a discussion and along the way we learn each member's back story as well as a bit about Austen and her works. A nice read.

My bedtime reading at present is I Capture the Castle. More nice reading. It's the 1930's or so, and a quirky family lives in a rented castle in England. They used to have money but are now dirt poor. The protagonist Cassandra writes in her journal whenever time and light allow. Apparently the entirety of the book is a six-month period when she's 17. That's it. It's wonderful, even though there doesn't seem to be a point. Perfect for bedtime reading.

Every new book I read inspires a new idea for a book in my head. I've got tons of ideas, and some of them might even be readable! :) On long drives and in inspired quiet times I plot out aspects of the story, flesh out bits of the characters, and imagine myself a well regarded novelist (cart before horse, I know). I've heard that everyone fancies themself a potential author, that it's quite the cliche, "I'm going to write a novel." But I know that one day I will do it. Will you? What will your book be about?