Verdict on The Eyre Affair

I just finished The Eyre Affair and I thought it was quite good. It was a cute story with a quirky reality. In fact, the alternative present is what I enjoyed most about this book. It was a quick and entertaining read, but I never felt as though I really got into the story. Unlike the characters in the story, I never felt myself pulled fully into the narrative; rather, I maintained a surface relationship with the characters and their story. Nonetheless, it was still an enjoyable story.

The Past Few Months

Well, I have been reading quite a bit the past few months. I am having trouble remembering all of what I've read (which was part of the point of my creating this blog.) Oh well. I'll tell you about what I can remember.

On the recommendation of Mr. Rich Radke, I am currently enjoying The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I have just started, but am already quite caught up in the story. It is set in an alternate recent past: Great Britain in 1985. Time travel is possible, Literature dominates the culture (instead of proselytizing Latter Day Saints, they have fanatical Baconians knocking on doors trying to convince people that Francis Bacon, not Shakespeare, was responsible for those works), and Britain is still warring with Imperial Russia in the Crimean War. Fforde was a bit heavy handed naming his characters, which is slightly distracting, but the story is great so far.

Thursday Next is a Special Operative agent in Literary Detection. She gets caught up in a very strange and secretive mess following the theft of an original Charles Dickens manuscript. I don't know quite where the story is going, but I am looking forward to following.

I am also listening to the Audiobook of Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman. And, yes, I do think unabridged audiobooks are books. Feynman sure was a character. I really enjoyed his stories of pre-war academic life at MIT and Princeton, and his time at Los Alamos breaking into filing cabinets and safes. His intentional lack of political consciousness disturbed me a little bit. I mean, there he is creating the atomic bomb and he doesn't really dwell on the consequences. He mentions that you get caught up in the practicalities of the project and forget about the meaning, but he doesn't expand his thoughts on the issue. And, later, he says that he decided you can't be responsible for the world, so he just dismisses political and social issues. I find it unsettling. He's right, it would help you sleep better and have more fun, but is it really the best thing for the world? Feynman has important insights into the failures of math and science education (in Brazil and the US in the 80s or before), but he just points them out and dismisses them. I would say the same problems remain with us today. I must say, his jokes are quite funny and his life whimsical and joyful. I'm not sure his slight misogynism provides a great example for young men, but eh? Anyway, it is a very interesting book.

Previous to this, I read the not-so successful The Genesis Code by John Case. Like the ever-popular Dan Brown novels, this was a Catholic conspiracy thriller, for which I am a sucker. While I found Case's writing to be much stronger than Brown's, the story was just as flimsy. I foresaw the story's "terrible twist" within the first ten pages. It made the next 470 pages rather frustrating. I did try to talk myself out of believing that that was the plot twist, as it was so ridiculous; but, alas. I keep hoping for another Foucault's Pendulum. Such greatness is not easy to come by.

Recently, I also read Enna Burning, the sequel to the fantastic Goose Girl. I was less impressed with Enna. This was a much darker book. This story focuses on her best friend, Enna, who learns to speak to and control fire. Here, the gifts of talking with nature came to be a curse, nearly destroying the characters who have this power. I guess it speaks to the danger of imbalance; allowing one "gift" to overwhelm you can consume your true character. Shannon Hale writes well, with great description and imagination, but this story just didn't come off as well as her first.

Simultaneously, I was re-reading the first two Artemis Fowl books via audiobook. If you haven't read Artemis Fowl and The Arctic Incident, I highly recommend them. A co-worker described them as James Bond meets Harry Potter. It is about a devious adolescent mastermind who gets mixed up with the fairy police. They are great stories.

I am ashamed to say that I haven't yet read the third or fourth in the series. I was re-reading the first two to work into the rest, but then got distracted with other things. And, now it is time to re-read the Harry Potter books in preparation for July 16th!! If you haven't already, be sure to check out J. K. Rowling's pretty cool website.