Got this on the advice of a fellow BookCrosser.

So far (about halfway through) a fun read. Sort of mystery cum science fiction cum James Bond. I will post more when I've read more, or when I have finished.

Reserved for Penny-n-Chaos through BookRelay.

Oh dear, there is so much I don't like about this book, but the bits I do like keep me reading it. Most of what I don't like is what initially intrigued me, the sampling of lots of genres. However, that got old very quickly. There is hard-boiled detective (poorly done), supernatural (very poorly done), time-travel (the part that keeps me reading), romance (horridly done), James Bond (lots of fun), literary history (pretty good, though a bit overdone in places) and humor (the character names...extremely annoying, with the exception of Braxton Hicks...anyone who has been pregnant will get the humor).

Also, one key element to the mystery is conspicuously forgotten after being mentioned in the very beginning of the book. The villain's name is not supposed to be said aloud, but even the heroine forgets this through the majority of the book, to say nothing of the experts who are supposed to have been working on the case for a long time. I am three quarters of the way through and this point is bugging me big time.

I also don't like the 3rd person omniscient chapters that break the first person dialog to explain what is going on elsewhere in the story. I understand it has to be done, but it is not done well in this book. Very jarring.

And why would the lead character go out on a date the very day her beloved uncle and aunt are kidnapped? That makes no sense at all. And why right after a fantastical car chase would she sit thinking about her former lover's new girlfriend?

The date scene did amuse me because Richard III is the show they see, and the production seems to be lots like the Rocky Horror Picture Show shows I've heard about, but never seen.

One of my favorite characters in any book is a female written by a male author. Tom Robbins does this amazingly well. Fforde does not, or at least not to my liking.

I will post again when I've finished.

Sloppy, gushy ending. There is so much that could have been great about this book, but too much that is haphazard and pretentious. Just can't like this, and I am disappointed because the reviews seem overwhelmingly positive. I keep thinking I am missing something. And I have the second book, Lost in a Good Book on my TBR, and the third, Well of Lost Souls, coming to me in a few months as a bookring. I will attempt the second, but only give it 50 pages. If it doesn't catch with me, I will relay it and drop out of the bookring.

Arrived today. I'll post more after I read it....
Well, I had a little trouble keeping up with what was going on in the first few chapters, but after that I really got into the plot & I enjoyed this book a LOT!
Thanks for sending it to me!

Offered for trade in
(4-5-04)

YAAAAYYY!!! Totally looking forward to this one. I'll have to read it quickly because I have the rest of the series coming in bookrings. I'll keep this one moving when I'm done.

Thanks very much!

Finished last night. I thought it was a fun story, with a few flaws. I kept thinking of the book as The Phantom Tollbooth for grownups because it's written in the same fantastical vein.

Overall, I enjoyed the story. I thought the kidnap of Jane Eyre and the changed ending of the book was quite clever. At first, when the characters were discussing how disappointing the ending of that novel was to them because Jane goes to India after marrying her cousin, I was very very confused. I remembered Jane and Mr. Rochester ending up together. Finally (probably later than most) I realized what was going to happen, and I was impressed with the inventiveness of the author.

Although the book was fun, I thought there were some things that could have been improved. I thought sometimes that the story was hard to keep up with. Some things could have been explained a little better, and the pacing was a little disjointed. I also think the author tried to stuff a little too much into his book, which made it feel frantic, almost. There were so many side plots and explanations of past occurrences, and it sometimes detracted from the plot. Not a bad story, just not great execution. And I could have done with one fewer of the male characters. It seemed that there were just a few too many of the other officers. I think one less would not have detracted from the story, but would have made them easier to keep up with.

I was mystified about Acheron Hades's name. I didn't understand why, if they weren't supposed to say his name out loud (a la Beetlejuice), the characters continued to do it. I wondered if it was actually his first and last name together that was forbidden, because it seemed they did avoid saying that. Also, I don't know if anyone else picked up on this or if I just imagined it, but I saw Acheron Hades as a symbol (? don't know exactly what to call it) for Adolph Hitler. Hades was an evil genius with the same initials, and he was thought to have died in Venezula several years ago. That was what really did it for me. Don't some people think Hitler may have escaped to South America somewhere? I wonder if anyone else thought of this.

There was quite a bit of humor in the book. I enjoyed the character names. And I found many bits really funny. I think the ones that tickled my funny bone the most were the asides and parts not necessary to the story. Obviously Mr. Fforde just inserted them for fun and humor, and they worked on me.

The time travel elements were really great. I enjoyed watching the events leading to Thursday's visit to herself unfold. And I already mentioned the time she spent in Jane Eyre, which I thought was quite clever.

I know this is silly, but I had a hard time adjusting to the fact that Thursday's name was Next. When characters said her name in the dialogue, I would often read it as the word 'next', especially if it was at the beginning of the sentence, where it would have been capitalized anyway. It happened a few times, causing me some confusion before I could adjust.

To sum up, I did enjoy this book. Before I read it, based on what others had said about it, I was afraid it would be too literary 'highbrow' for me, but I found it quite fun and entertaining. I'm now reading his second, Lost in a Good Book. I'm hoping that some of the flaws I found in this one will have been ironed out the second time around.

This lucky book is going to step into a ring that was started by Zugenia and is taking a little break. For those who care about such things, you can find the journal entries for the first ring here.

Here is the list for the ring. The BC'er that is holding the book will be marked in bold. Enjoy!

MaaikeB - Holland
princessaurora - PA
aramena - OK
amymehta - CA
rubyjules - VT
...and back to me (so I can share it with the m-i-l!)

This book has now arrived back at home. Thank you everyone for making this a successful ring!

This copy of The Eyre Affair is going to finish the travels begun by my copy, which is taking a break in Malaysia (wish I could join it!). Thanks, mlbish.

Mailed to Holland yesterday. Enjoy!

The book arrived at last. Whew, from the States to Holland takes a lot longer than the other way round, but it is a lot cheaper as well, so I guess that's only fair. Anyway, thanks a lot for sending it, mlbish. I have two other ringbooks waiting for me, but I'll read this one ASAP.

Wow, I thought this would take me a long time to finish, but I liked it a lot, especially from the moment the action took place within the Wordsworth poem and Jane Eyre. I'm certainly going to read the other Thursday Next-books as well. Thanks for sharing! The book travels on to NY.

Received last week and forgot to journal. I have a couple of other bookrings ahead of this one, but will start ASAP.

12/1 - I finally finished all of the bookrings I had ahead of this one and had a chance to read all of this book in about 2 or 3 sittings. Honestly, I was expecting this book to be a little better, but it wasn't bad. The concept of people actually entering books is intriguing and the book was well-written, but there was just something missing for me. I'll send this to the next person as soon as I get an address. Sorry I had it so long!

On its way to Casseytara. Sorry about the delay!

Received today! I have two other book ring books, so it may be a few days before I actually start this one.

Well, I enjoyed the book, but not as much as I had anticipated. For one thing, I was expecting the whole Jane Eyre storyline to show up much sooner, as I mistakenly had the impression that it was the plot of the book. so I was disappointed that it took so long to reach that point. Overall, the book was amusing, but I don't know if I'll bother with the sequels.

amymehta was next, but she said she'd already found and read another copy, so I'm mailing this to rubyjules today.

I got this a couple of days ago. I am almost reading the second book of a trilogy that I started, and will start this as soon as I'm done. Thank you for including me!

What a strange and bizarre book. It literally took me about 3/4 of the book to decide if I liked it or not. So, why did I keep reading, you ask? Because I was hoping that I would like it, or that it would get better or easier to understand as I went along. Well, all of those things did happen. It was nice! I did enjoy the book, and thought it was quite an interesting futuristic book set in the past. I'm glad that mlbish mentioned it to me all those eons ago, and that she started the ring that enabled me to read it. I'm looking forward to the second book.

I also wondered about the characters supposedly not being able to say Hades' name, but continuing to do that throughout the book. I've never ready Jane Eyre, so missed the fact that the ending had been changed. Oh well! But I liked how Rochester was able to 'escape' the book to save Thursday's life. All in all it was an interesting read.

RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed out to mlbish today! Thanks so much for sharing!

Oops! This one returned home safely, and I think I forgot to make a journal entry. Thanks to everyone who made this a successful ring.

I am going to share this with the m-i-l next.