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Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions

Lost in a Good Book: The Adventures of Thursday Next Series

1. Thursday's grandmother says she cannot die until she has read the ten most boring classics ever written. What do you think those are?

2. What sort of impact would the discovery of a long-lost play by Shakespeare make in Thursday's book-loving world? What kind of impact would it make in our world? What kind of discovery would make an equivalent impact in our world, if not the discovery of a Shakespearean play?

3. Aornis Hades is both a mnemonomorph memory eraser and a coincidence manipulator. With the former, she erases memory; with the latter, she murders people. Which is the more dangerous characteristic? Which act does the most harm to a person? Which act has the most impact on Thursday's life?

4. Destiny plays an important role in the first novel and coincidence plays an important role in this one. How does Fforde define a coincidence? How do coincidences relate to destiny in a world where time travel is a reality? How would you define a coincidence?

5. Thursday jumps into books, but she also visits Landen in her memories. Which world is more palpable for you, the world created when you can lose yourself in a book or the world of memory? Which world would you rather be able to jump back into?

6. Thursday manages to outwit the prosecutor in a trial that takes place in Kafka's novel. What other fictional courts could she have gone before? What would be the best case to argue in the other fictional trials?

7. Thursday's father says, "Scientific thought, indeed, any mode of thought whether it be religious or philosophical or anything else, is just like the fashions that we wear—only much longer-lived. It's a little like a boy band." What does he mean by this? Do you agree or disagree? Do you think it's possible to have the scientific thought equivalent to the "boy band so good that you never need another boy band again—or even any more music"?

8. The Neanderthals are interesting new characters in the second book. How would Neanderthal clones be received in our world? Do you think it would be ethical to reintroduce extinct species like the dodo and the Neanderthal in our world? Why or why not?

Lost in a Good Book: The Adventures of Thursday Next Series
by Jasper Fforde

  • Publication Date: February 24, 2004
  • Paperback: 399 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Books
  • ISBN-10: 0142004030
  • ISBN-13: 9780142004036