One of Our Thursdays Is Missing

by Jasper Fforde
Scott County Library audiobook 10 CDs
read by Emily Gray
genre: speculative fantasy (grin - thinking of the Council of Genres)

These books are so darn quirky! I haven't read a Thursday Next book in a while . . . and The Eyre Affair will always be my favorite. But I really enjoyed this book and am continually amazed by Fforde's cleverness.

This reminded me of The Phantom Tollbooth in that it is so much about language and probably would appeal to similar geeks! That love of books and language shines through. The "textual world" is a great place and his creative expose' on the Book World amuses me.

I love the reader's British accent and how she creates the different characters vocally.

I love that Fforde has kept it current with modern references. In talking about the reader "feedback loop" and its impact on what characters look like in the Book World, Harry Potter is seriously ticked off that he has to look like Daniel Radcliffe for the rest of his days.

I made a note to look up the bibliography to see which of the books in this series I have and haven't read . . . I think I lost interest with the Well of Lost Plots.

According to Wikipedia: "The first series is made up of the novels The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots and Something Rotten. The second series is so far made up of First Among Sequels, One of Our Thursdays Is Missing and The Woman Who Died a Lot."

The conflict in this book between "racy novel" and "women's literature" is underscored by the tight market on metaphors. I love this book!

When the written Thursday Next travels to the Real World to try to find the "real" Thursday Next, there were so many amusing and / or thought-provoking lines. I wrote down this one: "Eighty percent of talk in the Real World is pointless. The people who don't say much are the ones worth listening to." That's technically a paraphrase, not a quote. It's hard to take notes while listening and driving!

Her entire visit to the Real World and observations on life outside of the Book World were interesting. I also loved her visit to Biography. Fforde is genius!



I had grabbed a bunch of books on CD while at the library and didn't remember which Thursday Next book this was. I don't know if it's a different recording / copy of what I listened to in 2017, but this one had EXTREMELY long pauses at the track changes (which weren't just at the chapter breaks). I kept checking to see if the CD was over! Other than that irritation, I enjoyed the book (again). It is such a strange story that it was fun to just listen and not try to think too hard to figure things out. I love the literary allusions and inside jokes, especially the "Mediocre Gatsby" and the way things are in vanity fiction. I need to get one of the other books that I've not read. I dislike The Well of Lost Plots, but am not sure if I've read the others. The Eyre Affair remains my favorite!