Favorite Series

For those of you who've had a chance to read something from both the Thursday Next and Jack Spratt Nursery Crimes series, which one's your favorite?

Mine's easily the Thursday Next series.

I have only read two Jasper Fforde books. I first read Lost in a Good Book with Thursday Next, which I have to say I simply loved. I couldn't believe it had taken me this long to come across this author. The second was read just last week by me and was The Big Over Easy with Jack Spratt and it really is a tough call to say which I loved more.

I find them both wonderful in that I can read them and unexpectedly bump into other characters from books and/or nursery rhymes. I found myself repeating old nursery rhymes from my childhood while reading The Big Over Easy too.

Do I really have to choose? lol please don't make me....

Probably Thursday but I'll see how the Fourth Bear pans out before I commit to a decsion, its a bit hard to choose after only one book.

Before I created this group, the only person I ever talked to about Jasper Fforde's books was my mother, who's read the first three in the Thursday Next series, and at least the first in the Jack Spratt series. She's told me that she favors the Thursday Next series over the Jack Spratt series.

I never knew until now that some people can't choose a favorite without difficulty regarding his two series.

#2, I'm glad you've enjoyed his second series more than I have. It's too bad that we don't have a release date for his next Jack Spratt book available for you yet.

#3, I agree that choosing a favorite would be difficult in that circumstance!

Well, on a good note. I finally found a bookstore that has English books here. YAY! Even if in limited stock and so in the next month or so, I hope to pick up The Eyre Affair and The Fourth Bear so maybe I will have a clearer idea of preference after that.

To be honest though, bookwise, there isn't a lot I don't like.

I've only read the Nursery Crime books so far, but I have The Eyre Affair on my shelf, waiting to be read. However, I want to actually read Jane Eyre first, so i get all the little references, so that's pretty high up on my list of priorities, reading-wise...

Kell:

I really recommend reading Jane Eyre first. You will enjoy The Eyre Affair much better that way! :) One book I want to read before rereading the Thursday Next series (specifically, somewhere after the first book) for this summer's release is Wuthering Heights - I feel as though I could further enough this series that I already love. :)

If anyone would like to give me a run-down of books I should read before each of the Thursday Next books, I'd greatly appreciate it, as when it comes to this sort of thing, I get a real kick out of getting all the little references and in-jokes...

Kerian - I have Wuthering Heights waiting on my shelf too - looking forward to getting into that one - I'm on a bit of a classics kick at the moment...

Kell:
In that case, Sense and Sensibility is a good one to read, as well. Somewhere, I have a list of the books with the most references in the Thursday Next series. I'll have to track it down.

i think that the thursday next books are much more rich and clever than the nursery crimes books. there's a much wider range of genres for fforde to play off of and the puns are so much better!

oh, and hamlet would be a good read before something rotten.

I enjoy both series but I think Thursday Next wins by a bob of the head. I didn't like The Well of Lost Plots as much as the ones that take place in Swindon, though. It is the interaction of the people in the "real" world with the people from the Book World that delights me.

On the other hand, I enjoyed The Fourth Bear more than The Big Over Easy so we'll see how that series continues.

#6 - Really dedicated fans over on Jasper fforde's website have set up a list of every single reference that occurs in each book. The list for Eyre Affair is HERE

You'll be amazed at how many you missed.

Its a great website!

#12 reading_fox:
I checked out the link. Talk about dedication! :)

hi gang, new here and delighted to find some ffellow ffans. I loved the four TN books and am excited about having another. I struggled with Over Easy and need to try it again. So for now I definitely vote for Thursday.

For those not wanting all the detail of the other site, I'd certainly recommend being familiar with Great Expectations (far and away my favorite Dickens), since Miss Havisham plays such a big role, the humor of which you can appreciate more if you've seen her original incarnation.

TN...no, JS...no, TN...no, wait JS.....Oh, phooey...

I love 'em both. The Jack Spratt's are just a tad bit sillier, perhaps, which may be why I love them so. I mean, really, a psychopathic gingerbread man? Genius! But I do love Thursday. And the Dodos. Teehee.

Last year, I talked my local book club into reading the Eyre Affair and, to a man, they all HATED it. Can you believe that?? I was gobsmacked.

Incidentally, Kell, if you try to read all the referenced books before you get to Thursday Next series, you may never get to read them. :)
I say just jump on in!

I'd be gobsmacked, too. I've never come across a person who has read the book and not loved it!

That's very true. What I do, is make a list during my reading of the books I thought were most important. Before I read the book over again, I try to read some books on that list. For instance, I'm going to read "Wuthering Heights" and reread "Hamlet" before jumping back into the series again. I got "Sense and Sensibility" out of the way a few months ago.

#15 swelldame -LOL! I only planned on reading Jane Eyre first because it was so obviously referenced and I knew absolutely nothing about it at all. Things like Hamlet I know well (along with a whole host of other Shakespeare - I was drama student), along with the basic storyline of Wuthering Heights (as was mentioned by Kerian - I have Sense and Sensibility on my shelf too, by the way). I just wanted to have a basic grounding at least before I jumped in and started feeling a little lost. I'm looking forward to it though - if the Nursery Crimes books are any indication, I know I'm going to enjoy the Thursday Next series too...