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Posted by: Anonymous User (---.hsd1.tx.comcast.net)
Date: July 14, 2005 11:26PM
Heresy! How dare you suggest that other authors even exist...?
Just kidding. :) Well, of course "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" is full of crazy nonsense...if you try to forget that it's an allusion of British government...and definitely worth a read, as are all of the classics.
For more lighthearted fun, try "Pygmalion" (adopted into the movie "My Fair Lady"-- the funniest character in all literature is Henry Higgins, in this book), Agatha Christie's novels are the BEST mystery novels out there, (Try "And then there were None"), and if you're into kind of wry-humor-ish sadly funny kind-of-serious novels, "Animal Farm" by George Orwell is the way to go. Dare I suggest that you try out the kids series, "A series of Unfortunate Events"? Well, I guess I do dare...there is a lot of sophisticated humor even though the book is directed towards kids. And of course, you must read some Shakespeare before you die.
Sorry that that was all pretty random...but there's just so much out there!
Craig Fergusen!
He's the host of the Late Late Show on CBS, but he wrote a novel recently -- "Between the Bridge and the River." I'm halfway through and it's amazing! Vmuch like Douglas Adams, actually. Only a lot more -- Craig Fergusen-ish
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You wants it? How Gollum-esque!
I agree that there's no other author quite like Jasper Fforde -- his work is in a class by itself. However, if you'd like to meet another whimsical and highly literary detective, I can recommend Lord Peter Wimsey, hero of a series of novels by Dorothy L. Sayers, written in the 1930s. "Murder Must Advertise" is a good one to start with.
I second Terry Pratchett - the reason he was not on my last list was because I hadn't yet read any of his books when I posted it. I have made quite a few library runs since then...
I'll third Douglas Adams, but be careful with his. the logic is funny, but if you don't like space, dolphins or the number 42, you might want to stay away.
(His books are right next to Ffordes on my desk, All of them.)
I've heard the name Terry Pratchett alot...I've never read any. but he's almost alway recomended with Fforde and Adams.
Also if you have kids that you might want to plung into these kind of stories, try the Artimis Fowl series, it isn't as crazy but it has it's moments. Sort of like a starting point for the downward spiral that is this type of logic.
Oh, but he is so very different from Fforde. I guess you could pin some of the difference on the Irish-Wales business. And the children's author-adult author thing.
Adams, Pratchett, and Fforde are not actually all that similar themselves as far as the obvious plots and genres of their books. It's more an indefinable (or very complicated to define, see our thread on Nextian Chat) sort of tone thing going that can be roughly categorized as "British Humour." I never quite lumped Colfer in with the rest of them, though, for some reason...
I would also highly recommend the Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, especially if you like Colfer. (In my opinion, it's a little more sophisticated than Artemis Fowl - maybe somewhere between that and Discworld as far as the age range it's mainly geared towards, though of course there's huge overlap.)