The books are fairly recently written (last 10 years) and there are two series. The first and longest series is about a literary detective Thursday Next. It starts in 1985 but it's a different 1985 - key events in our history happened differently and so things like the Crimean war are still happening, and there is no travel by plane. The books are very funny and not only about some light reading. You need a decent grasp of classical literature and politics over the years to fully understand some of the differences.
One of the things I really enjoy about his books are his plays on the English language. I mean the name of his main character (Thursday Next) in an of itself is a bit of a laugh. For example in one of the books there is discussion around a shortage of the letter 'U' and so the decision is to change words like neighbour in one geographical location to neighbor and have it viewed as a spelling idiosyncrasy...if that idea makes you chuckle a bit or even smile then you'll probably enjoy this author's books. The first book in that series is called The Eyre Affair.
His other series is so far only two books long and is a kind of spin off of the Thursday Next books. It's a mystery series based around nursery rhyme characters and is also very funny. The first book in that series is called The Big Over Easy.
He has a new book out called Shades of Gray and I'm excited to read it and see if it's as good as the other books.
All this to say - read Jasper Fforde's books. They are very funny and well worth the time if you're looking for something fun and fictional to read.
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