Wow, this was just as good or even better than I expected. I can't wait to read the next one. The whole world in the book was so interesting and walking into books and the dodos and the story, wow. The only thing that was so to speak unbelievable was the romantic part at the end, because ten years is a long long time and people do change. I liked however the visitors at the party :) And Thursday’s dad was funny. There were so many great characters in the book. A must read. My Onni wants to read this too.

The Finland only bookring goes something like this:

1. Niksu
2. Dotdot
3. chrisim
4. Harmaja
.
.
.
n. kiala

Happy happy joy joy!! Got this from Kiala today. Thank you!! I started reading it right away and I'm really enjoying it so far.

I’m totally hooked! I really enjoyed this book, every bit as good as I was told. I confused my non-reading friends by telling about this book and I had fun :) I must buy my own copy and definitely the other Ffordes books also! Looking forward to read those too. Thanks kiala for starting this ring!

I'm giving this to dotdot probably on next Tuesday. (It would have been so much fun to write "Next Thursday" :D Ok, that was lame...)

Thank you, Niksu and kiala.

This is just how bookcrossing should work for me. I had never heard of this book until Kiala praised it and offered it for others to read. I was a bit skeptical but I gave it a chance. I'm so glad I did. (In spite of the fact that I would have ended the story in chapter 34, if I only had an opportunity to do so:) Many thanks to Kiala. I'll send the book to Chrisim next.

Edit 20.6.2005: I'll mail the book tomorrow.

Book has arrived, thank you dotdot and kiala! It will take some time before I can start reading. I'm still reading two bookring books...

Have a nice Midsummer!

Thanks for the opportunity to read this! The story was entertaining with book hopping, time travelling and many funny characters, especially the Bookworms :)

The chapter starters were excellent! With couple of lines those extracts from imaginary books, memoirs or newspapers said so much and they give one more dimension to this already manylayered story, the future. I only hoped the Eyre part to begin earlier, and maybe I waited more episodes from the Brontë's novel. Those "new" events were so well "invented" that I wanted more book hopping (and less police actions). Romance was ok, it was nice to have a happy ending now, not in the third book. This book really caters to everyone!

27th July. I sent the book to harmaja.

The book arrived today - thanks, chrisim, for sending it, and thanks to kiala for sharing! Unfortunately I'm in the middle of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, so it'll take me a while until I can start The Eyre Affair. (I'm convinced all my fellow readers will understand my position!)

I managed to read The Eyre Affair in a week or so after I received it. I have been putting off writing this journal entry, of course, as I always seem to do. Now it's the day before the meet-up, and it's time to write all the delayed journal entries, so here I go.

I found The Eyre Affair very entertaining, but. I seem to be the only one with major buts. :-) Well, for one thing, I found the alternative reality thing a bit contrived. The author made it a little bit too clear that the reality Thursday Next lives in is, in fact, alternative reality. The reader kept receiving explanations and side facts that seemed to be a bit unconnected with the story. I hate to sound like a sci-fi snob, but in many sci-fi novels all this alternative reality stuff is done a lot more subtly, so that the reader doesn't need to be reminded all the time. And I sound even more like a sci-fi snob, when I venture to remark, that many of the time-travel cliches in this book were well worn out.

OK, enough with the snobbery now. The alternative world was nice. It's weird to think about a world where literature has such a central role. I kept wondering, though, how did the literature end up having such a big part in everyday life? The author didn't dwell much on that. What made the difference? There was big money invested in literature, of course, and therefore hard crime connected with it, but how did the investing begin? Why was the public so enthusiastic about literature? (One might as well take a look at our world and ask: why not?)

Thursday Next herself gave me yet another "nice, but" feeling. I didn't think she had much of a personality. She was just a trigger-happy super cop with a sad love story in the past, and a bit of a soft side to her as well. I kept wondering if she was meant to be a stereotypical hero in all aspects, except for being a woman instead of a man. Change her sex, and she is one in a thousand. Maybe that was the point? I dunno. I didn't relate to her at all.

I also had some problems with the action plot, especially in the end. Such as: if there were experts that had memorized Jane Eyre by heart, why didn't they just write it down again and start a new, untainted line of work? (Think of Fahrenheit 451!) And when Thursday's uncle had been saved already, why was it important to get the instruction manual back from Hades? Couldn't the uncle have written the instructions down again? I didn't get it, but maybe it was all logical somehow, and I just couldn't follow up. That sometimes happens with me & action books.

Oh, and the romance was silly. Need I say more? And Mrs Nakajima was lovely. She was my favourite. Mr. Rochester had all the charm in the world, Jane was perhaps a bit bland. And as many have remarked before me, the scenes taking place inside the book were the best part of the story.

All in all, I didn't find this book as original and brilliant as I was expecting, but I am grateful for being offered a chance to read it. I've heard that the sequel, Lost in a Good Book, is far better, and now I'm looking forward to reading it as well. I managed to hunt down the book already, and now it's sitting on my table, waiting to be read. I already took a peek inside, and noticed that Mrs Nakajima features in there, too! Yay!

I'll take The Eyre Affair to the local meet-up tomorrow, and give it back to Kiala. Hope she's happy to see her book again!

I got this one back.