Dickens-Fforde

Books read: 3

Title: Oliver Twist

Author: Charles Dickens

Status: This book has been on my shelf since I was 10 or so, and I’m not convinced I’ve ever read it all the way through before now. For many a year, Oliver! was my absolute favorite musical. (It was the first one I saw in the West End) I think I appropriated the book from my mother with the intent to read it to compliment the musical, but didn’t complete the task. …There’s a lot more to the story than you see in the musical, btw. I’m not a huge fan of Dickens’ prose style (reading A Tale of Two Cities was one of the most academically trying parts of high school), but I was surprised by the amount of sardonic asides about England’s treatment of the poor.

Result: I’m sending this one back to my mom, since I originally stole it from her.

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Title: Star Trek: Voyage to Adventure

Author: Michael J. Dodge

Status: A knock off ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ book set in the world of the original Star Trek. You are a new ensign assigned to the USS Enterprise who immediately gets to hang out with Kirk, Spock and co.. Whether you are sucked in to the icy vacuum of space or shot by Klingons or sent to the Mirror Universe all depends on the choices you make. It’s good fun, but each of the stories I created were all extremely short, and it was pretty easy to determine which choice is going to killed and which will get a chuckle with one of the senior staff.

Result: This book was given to me many years ago by my best friend at the time, but I think it will be better of moving on to another generation of Trekkie.

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Title: The Eyre Affair

Author: Jasper Fforde

Status: This book consistently places on my favorites list. When I first read it, it was unlike anything else I had read. I’m not even sure of how to describe it. Manic and zany and very, very clever. There is satire on modern England, literary criticism (and loads of literary jokes), a bit of time travel, vampire slaying and dodos. I’ve read it many times (and gone through a number of copies of the book because I keep loaning it out to people) and every time I get something new out of it.

Result: While I could certainly get it on my Kindle, I think it’s important to keep a paper edition on my shelf.

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• Apparently, I can’t count and this is actually the seventeenth week of the year.