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.

 

I was a little bit afraid to start this collection of Aphorisms, because the last one I read, another one of the Little Black Classics, was a real disappointment. I'd previously only seen a little bit of Nietzsche in class, but was curious to what he had to say.

I can only speak for this short edition, which had some nice observation on human nature, which I liked although some seemed a bit random and it would have been nice as some more context could have been provided in this edition. On the other hand, his views on women and gender roles are very outdated, especially for someone seeing through a lot of other things. However, he -of course- was also just a man of his time, but I did deduct a star for it.

Little Black Classics #5

Goodreads summary:

'We must learn to love, learn to be kind, and this from our earliest youth ... Likewise, hatred must be learned and nurtured, if one wishes to become a proficient hater'

This volume contains a selection of Nietzsche's brilliant and challenging aphorisms, examining the pleasures of revenge, the falsity of pity, and the incompatibility of marriage with the philosophical life.

 

My opinion:

I really liked his opinion on certain topics but I don't like this edition so much. I wish they would have explain just a few subjects and not executed in pointless bullet points. Some of his opinions only got one sentence. Even tough I didn't like this edition, it still made me excited to read more of his work. The Portable Nietzsche is listed on the Rory Gilmore reading challenge and I planned to read that one at some point, but because I got introduced by his works it made me even more interested in picking it up.

 

Have you read something of his works?

A collection of the German Philosopher Nietzche's thoughts on love, the human condition, feelings and marriage, set in short, devourable segments.

This was a marvellous collection. I swept through this as if my life dependended upon it: and perhaps it does.

There are segments which are truer than others, and some which are obviously products of the time Nietzche was writing in. It seemed a confusing batch at times, too, for I'm not sure Nietzche really, truly believed all he was writing, as hypocrisy was often rife within. It is quotable and will provide conversions aplenty, though perhaps we should forgive a man from a different time his views on women, paradoxical as they were.