I've just finished doing the technical direction of a play called "Beanie and the Bamboozling Book Machine" (May, Booth) which was first performed in 1989 and based on a story which appeared before that year.

Basically, a kid invents a machine which reads books; it blows up and the witches from Oz, Snow White and Hansel and Gretel transport into the real world. The heroes, led by Prof. Librum, Head Librarian of "Bookworld" (an other dimensional world peopled by book characters), have to get the witches back into their books. Librum, at one point, claims to know when books are being read - part of his job as Head Librarian presumably.

Is there perhaps a genre of 'bookworld' crossing over to real world plots - in other words: can anyone supply other examples? The Arnie movie doesn't count - that was a filmworld crossover.

Funke's Inkheart/Inkspell series can be put in this genre. But if I remember right it is only one special book that they can read themselves into / pull characters out of.

How about Clive Barker's Weaveworld, where the Seerkind pop in & out of a magical carpet? That's a stretch, I suppose...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/16/2007 10:19PM by OC Not.

OCNot: Inkheart they can go into any book. But only some people can do it. Very like Fforde really. Only that they make the book seem alive. And suddenly, it is.

I liked Inkheart.

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'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

I'll have to read them again. I wonder when/if the next one is coming out?

Inkheart is worth reading??

I have to have a read if it is!

Michael Ende's Neverending Story, although the "inside" world is a story world, not strictly a book world. But then Jasper also has the old OralTrad OS...

Have not read it. Is it anything like the movie?

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

We have discussed that already, I'm sure of it...

It's longer, has more anthroposophic pedagogy, and no cheasy music. Especially the last on weighs it heavily to the book side.

The Myst games?

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That statement is either so deep it would take a lifetime to fully comprehend every particle of its meaning, or it is a load of absolute tosh. Which is it, I wonder?
Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

Ooh, good one!

I didn't mind Michael Ende's book, but it wasn't fabulous

I liked those.... Myst was fun.

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Heh -- I'm glad to see I wasn't the only one who thought the Myst games were the tiniest bit similar to the TN series. There are some eerie parallels between the two, especially the "prison book" element and First Among Sequels' "book fissure"!

I've noticed similarties between Fforde's books & the Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels mysteries-
especially the troubles at work, accidental fame & the villians-
if I remember correctly, the main villian was called the Gingerbread Man,
but I'm very tired right now & could be imagining it...

I'm about to start reading the new one DIRTY MARTINI, we'll see if it still seems that way...

dragging up an old love of mine (again).
The Land of Laughs, Jonathon Carrol.
You really have to read it.

Cheers BK used bookstore has a copy I'm picking up on my way home tonight. Two bucks!

I just picked up a book recently called Rumo, by Walter Moers, which is very excellent so far, and I intend to read his other books--the latest one of which appears to be called City of Dreaming Books with a similar premise of the main character being trapped in a place where books come to life.

There's also Silverlock, by John Myers Myers, in which the shipwrecked main character washes up on the island of the Commonwealth, where the people and events all come from mythology, folk tales, and literature (at one point they steal Huck Finn's raft). In this one, although many of the references are quite recognizable, others are very obscure and it's interesting to try to figure out where they come from.

I recommend The Land of Laughs.

MILD SPOILER follows I suppose I should just PM Kitten but oh well then I'd have to start over...



It reminded me of Shirley Jackson. I had some creepy dreams!!

:D Glad you liked it.

I think I sort of missed the point of the book when I was a kid, because I wasn't scared of it- rather fascinated, instead.