Sixth in the Thursday Next series. Set in Book World, where fictional characters live in between readings, the protagonist is the written Thursday Next from the series within the series. In between portraying Thursday as she would like to see herself to readers the written Thursday is investigating a crashed book. When she starts to suspect sabotage and discovers that the real Thursday has gone missing just before she is due to play a vital role in peace talks, the written Thursday finds she is more like the real Thursday than she realised. Fforde's originality and imagination are fantastic but this takes a very long time to get going.

Travelling in a ray:

Lamilla (Belarus, send international)
Winterbirth (UK, send EU)
dutch-book (Netherlands, send Netherlands or EU)
bookguide (Netherlands, send EU)
lunatum (Finland, send international)
FraukeRo (Sweden, send international)
Abi-Gibby (UK, send Europe or USA)
Flutterbies9 (UK, send Europe)
slipperbunny (Finland, send international)
bluezwuzl (Germany, send international)

Sent to Lamilla who is first in the ray. Enjoy!

Received today!

Fforde is not an easy author for me. I feel very excited when starting a new Thursday Next book. It goes like this about 60-80 pages and then it's a chore to finish - until the last couple of chapters, which are satisfactory enough to start the next book in series.


Is going to Winterbirth next

Sent further today from the main post office as a registered airmail
Safe travels!

Arrived today.

Releasing to the next person in the ring.

Got here last week or maybe even the week before that. I am reading the fifth book in this series and I will send those two in one package to bookguide, as that will be cheaper for me. Looking forward again though!

Yet another Thursday Next novel finished! The end of the available books of this series is in sight. It was enjoyable, although the 'weirdness' has worn off. I liked the Bookworld in the old format, although this one gives more depth which has its qualities too. I have already contacted bookguide and book 5 and 6 will travel to her next week.

Traveling to bookguide, along with book 5 in this series. I hope you enjoy!

Arrived safely today, together with First Among Sequels.

One of Our Thursdays Is Missing by Jasper Fforde


This episode of the Thursday Next series was a disappointment. It didn't really get going until the written Thursday found her inner Thursday Next and started to act like the real thing. Then the end was too confusing. I'm not a fan of psychological thrillers or most detective series; I usually need someone to explain it to me again at the end.

What I did like were the interactions with Sprockett, with his infinite ability to make cocktails that sounded like they came from Racy Novel. I don't think I see Thursday as a cocktail-drinker. She seems more of a beer-drinker to me. Or tea. I can't wait to see the new version of the written Thursday's world. Oh, wait....

My favourite quote comes from Bradshaw's Companion:

"There are multiple Book Worlds, all coexisting in parallel planes, and each unique to their own language. Naturally, varying tastes around the Outland make for varying popularity of genres, so no two BookWorlds are ever the same. Generally, they keep themselves to themselves, except for the annual Book World conference where the equivalent characters get together to discuss translation issues. It invariably ends in arguments and recriminations."

The map was fascinating and very helpful. The thing that strikes me as missing is YA, young adult, that has taken off spectacularly in the last few years, with a large number of adult readers looking for a good tale with no literary pretence. I wonder what the maps of other Book Worlds are like. The Japanese map must have a large manga section, or would that just be divided up under the thematic genres? Scandinavian countries must have a mainland for psychological drama, detective stories and there's probably an Astrid Lindgren island where Pippi Longstocking rules the roost. In the Netherlands, there would have to be a small island off comedy for humorous columnists and stand-up comedian philosophers, known here as cabaret, and another for novellas written specifically to be given away free as Book Week gifts when you buy another Dutch book. They're not genre-specific, but they have a strange proclivity for lasting 92 pages. Then there would have to be a large region for literary thrillers, whatever they may be; thrillers written using correct Dutch, perhaps. I will have to go to Jasper Fforde's website to see if other maps are available.

View all my Goodreads reviews

I will be sending books 3, 4, 5 and 6 in one package to Finland because otherwise it would have been prohibitively expensive due to a recent change in the Dutch postal rates making it just as expensive to post 4 books abroad as it is to post 3.

Due to a crazy work schedule, unexpected trips and ones that left earlier than expected, leaving me no time to visit our local part-time post office, I finally managed to get this in the post last week. My sincere apologies to everyone who I've inconvenienced, hanging on to these books for so long. There are now 4 books on their way to Lunatum.

This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before the end of 2014. My reading goal is 36 books.

The books arrived.

I had great time with the book on my Christmas holiday. The new book world seems interesting and I'm really looking forward the nest book.

Arrived on my birthday and looked like a present with the colorful polka-dot envelope... what a nice (even if unintentional) surprise :-D I'm looking forward to reading this book!

Edit: Loved this one as much as the previous ones... good to know that bumping into somebody in the street most likely means that either of us is a bookworld character :-D

Now on it's way to Flutterbies9 (since Abi-Gibby had already read this part of the series). Enjoy!

Arrived safely with me on Saturday but I'd forgotten to journal its arrival, sorry. Just finishing a book which is due to travel in the next week then I'll get on to this one.

I have to agree greenbadger, this one does take a time to get going, but then when it does it goes apace. However, perhaps it was required as the book was introducing a new bookworld and what had brought it about and the map was great. I do like this series and appreciate the brilliance of bringing all the literary references into scenarios of their own.

This time the written Thursday has an adventure all of her own demonstrating how alike she is to the real Thursday though often it seems a default jump of consciousness to reach the conclusion. She starts to muddle along getting closer and closer to the solutions, this time with the companionship of Sprockett, who is a joy in this book, but gradually realising that she is gaining in confidence until at the end she can admit how alike they really are whilst still maintaining her independence.

Sadly I have completed this one and it is packaged ready to go to the next reader, so off to the Post Office. Looking forward to the next in series.

Hope you enjoy this Thursday adventure as much as I did.

Happy travels little book.

The book arrived safely today. =) I have five books to read before I get to read the previous volume and this one, but I'll try to read this during the summer.

Interesting part of the series. The story was pretty slow, but I liked the change of pace. I'm trying to send this as soon as possible to the next reader, probably this week.

Sending this today to the Next reader. =)

Now that the missing 6th Thursday has arrived, I can read the next two books in the right order... ;-)

And the book is here again. =D Maybe I'll find a reader for this from Finland.

Releasing to the bookcrossing table at Finncon.

Caught at Finncon 2018. I'm trying to read the Thursday Next series from the beginning at the moment. It may take some time to get to this book, but hopefully I'll get there one day.

Nice seeing you at Finncon, slipperbunny, although I (embarrassingly) didn't recognize you at first...

I've been buddy reading the TN series this year with a Bookstagram friend, and this will be my next one. Thanks Kemppu for lending it to me, so I can continue! I'll get the book back to you in September so you can continue, too. :)

Mr. Fforde did it again. He got, not only the reader, but also the main character confused. But in a good way. :) BookWorld is remade and a genre war is at the doorstep. The written Thursday's biggest problems seems to be getting her crew behave and to avoid getting on a date with Whitby - until she is put in charge of an book accident investigation and when she learns that the RealWorld Thursday might be missing. Luckily she gets help from a butler robot who can navigate a TransGenreTaxi through the BookWorld sky while being chased by Men in Plaid.

It took a bit longer than I thought (I'm so sorry for the delay), but the book is now returning to Tampere.

The book is with me again, I've started reading it.

Nothing really interesting happened in this book before I was at least halfway through. The book could have been shorter or the series finished already, it's getting tired. There were enought good things in the last third or so, however, so I managed to finish the book.

This will go back to Mecu eventually.

The book stays with me but can be borrowed to a trust-worthy reader.