As Icky will tell you later, I browbeat and bullied her into reading this book because I knew how perfect it'd be for her. And what do you know? I was right! Without further ado...

Background

Quite similar to the phenomenon of writer’s block, there is a thing called reader’s block. The symptoms include not being able to read anything despite a burning desire to do so. Anyway, that was what I was suffering from when like a great friend Midu—my office buddy, an awesome writer, and one of the few cool persons I have in my life right now, suggested (made me read it by force) me a book— The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Since I had no choice, I started reading it.

What I Found

First thing first, I love classics and guess who else share my passion for them? Thursday Next—the protagonist. What started on the basis of mutual interest proved to be an endless romance. There is every kind of awesomeness hidden or sometimes oozing out of the book. Set in an alternative reality, MS. Next’s world has Literatecs who investigate the literary crimes. Surprisingly, there are a huge number of those committed there as well—finally, the criminals have realized what is truly valuable, even if only in the fictional world, but since fiction is where we dwell, it is all good!

The Protagonist

Thursday Next had been previously involved in Crimea—some kind of world war involving England and Russia. However, she left that behind after her brother dies and she drifts apart from the love of her life over a misunderstanding (you have to read the book to find more about it). Now, she is a litertec and things turn quite interesting when a villain from her past decides to visit her present and meddle with something she prizes the most—books!

Since we are on the topic of past and present—her dad is into timey wimey wibbly wobbly stuff—that explains the daughter’s name. He is quite an intriguing character, who keeps visiting her in his own good time, kind of off his hook but brainy as hell—very Ravenclawish!

The Villain

Now Mr. Evil has very clear ideas—loves evil just for the sake of it (money is not bad either). The guy could have done great in his life, had he not favored the dark side so much. However, he still considers himself quite successful. He knows how to do anything, like ANYTHING—can walk through solid materials without being noticed. Interesting, right? He keeps crossing Thursday’s path every now and then.

Other Amazing Stuff

Apart from the good versus evil, there are several interesting theories. The best one being—Let’s get inside a book—LITERALLY! This is what actually grabbed my attention, in the world of Thursday Next, you can move inside a book. I find the idea beautiful¬—it is like when you are really into a book, it allows you to enter it, but this time you can make changes as well!!! You meet the characters and alter the story. Amazing, no? I would love to dive and save Severus Snape any day. Will keep him for me, even if it means a life full of potion making—the things we do for love!

Sorry for that moment of self-indulgence!

Coming back to Thursday’s world, she has a genius scientist uncle who invents all kind of amazing stuff and it is his machine that allows you to travel inside a book. Wait, things are going to turn even more exciting—bookworms—actual creatures that feed off prepositions, fuel the machine. I mean how more cool it can get.

My Verdict

There are several other interesting theories to explore in there. I will be leaving those for you to discover on your own. For me, it had all the things I needed but then again, my book agent (read drug dealer) knows me so well. If you are looking for a book suggestion that will just make your day—be friends with Midu and she will provide you with just the right stuff.