Book Review: The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde

I love reading, and I especially love reading a good series, because it doesn't have to be over when you get to the end of the book, because there's another one waiting. I've always been a fast reader too, which is a downside, because I get through books too quickly. I can't help it. So I need a long series to keep me going.

I love fantasy and sic fi, but the more pop versions of it. I'm not ashamed to say (well maybe I am mildly) that I read all four Twilight novels in a week, I cried when Dumbledore died and I had a literary crush on Prince Caspian from Narnia when I was younger...

But I also proudly assert that I loved the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and the Narnia series long before they were movies!

It seemed so easy to find books to read when I was younger, thanks to prolific writers like Blyton. I really wanted my own Wishing Chair and a Faraway tree in my back yard.

These days I find it harder to find long series I love. Adult fiction sometimes gets too serious, or is just fluff. I like to escape into my novels. So this series is perfect for that. It's the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde.






The Eyre Affair is the first in the series based around the adventures of Thursday Next, a literary detective. It is set in a fictional version of the UK, being a parallel universe where things are slightly different to our own. Not only does Thursday fight literature related crime in the Real World, but there is also a whole world inside books too. Thursday gets entangled with the policing department, Jursifiction, inside the Book World as well as her life in the Real World.

I just love that idea! Who would love to be able to read themselves into a book and actually meet the written characters. It's fun and clever, and I love Fforde's creativity through this whole series. Thursday is a tough, gutsy female character but really relatable too. It references a lot of books, both popular and classics, so you'll get it more if you're familiar with them but its not essential.

I have the first 5 books of the series in paper copy, but I bought the latest two novels to read in the Kindle App on my iPad. I still love having the real hardcopies of books. There's just something about them that digital can't replace. But when a large proportion of my day is spent holding a baby, ebooks are much easier.

Sometimes I lie down with The Bubs to feed and fall asleep, and I'll often read then if I don't nap too. One day I took a paper book with me to read. It was only after I lay down in a darkened room that I realised that I wouldn't be  able to read it - obviously paper doesn't emit light like an iPad screen. Yet. I'm sure one day they'll invent that.

Until then, ebooks are handy for one handed and dark situations.

So if your looking for a fun series, give Thursday Next a go.