First, I have to back and report something truly tragic: brilliant author Jasper Fforde, creator of the Thursday Next series, was in Texas last Friday! He appeared at a book signing at BookPeople (the world's best independent bookstore), in Austin, Texas, hipness capitol of the world (well, at any rate, south of the Mason-Dixon Line). BUT I MISSED IT!
I did NOT find out about this amazing event until 7:30 p.m. Friday. Jasper Fforde's appearance began at 7 p.m., and Austin is a 75-mile drive. You do the math. There was absolutely no way I would make it in time, much less get a wristband and actually get a book signed. I was crushed. I love Thursday Next. If you have not heard of this series, here is a brief description, copied from Goodreads:
Welcome to a surreal version of Great Britain, circa 1985, where time travel is routine, cloning is a reality, (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. England is a virtual police state where an aunt can get lost (literally) in a Wordsworth poem, militant Baconians heckle performances of Hamlet, and forging Byronic verse is a punishable offense. All this is business as usual for Thursday Next, renowned Special Operative in literary detection, until someone begins kidnapping characters from works of literature. When Jane Eyre is plucked from the pages of Brontë's novel, Thursday must track down the villain and enter the novel herself to avert a heinous act of literary homicide.
It is both bizarre and brilliant, and if you're a classics lover with an open mind, you'll probably love this book. Needless to say, I was horribly disappointed not to attend this book signing, and I had to console myself with a signed copy -- I was already planning on going to Austin on Sunday for my quarterly Jane Austen Society meeting (at which we discussed Lady Susan and ate lavender scones, which I made from scratch!) And not only was the book signed, it came with this cool postcard (downloadable here):
And today I had a 40% off coupon from Borders and $10 in Borders bucks since I upgraded my membership, so the book-buying ban went by the wayside. Of course I could have just given it to my children or husband, but where's the fun in that?? Instead I bought The Post Office Girl by Stephan Zweig, which ended up costing me about $1. I've wanted to read this since NYRB Reading Week (sadly, I did not participate, but added countless books to my TBR list).
So how is everyone else doing with the TBR Dare? Anyone else breaking their book-buying ban? I was really doing well up until now -- I'd only bought ONE tiny little book at the library book sale! Well, I'm going to do my best as long as I can hold out. I think I need to resolve to stop adding books to the TBR list as well -- but I'd have to stop reading blogs and that's just not going to happen. Sigh.
