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Lost in a Good Book

Thursday Next Book 2
Series: Thursday Next
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( 55,992 ratings, 3,257 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
In Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde, the protagonist, Thursday Next, navigates a peculiar world where literature and reality blur. Tasked with ensuring the integrity of great works, she discovers conspiracies threatening both fictional and real worlds. As she faces bureaucratic challenges and menacing forces, Thursday becomes embroiled in a thrilling quest that tests her wit and resilience.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

You might enjoy this book if you love a unique blend of crime, thriller, and fantastical elements, where the boundaries between literature and reality blur intriguingly. It's ideal for readers who appreciate wit, clever literary references, and a protagonist diving into a world where books provide a doorway to adventure and mystery.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

Jasper Fforde's hit follow-up to THE EYRE AFFAIR, now available in stunning new jacket style.

Jasper Fforde's hit follow-up to THE EYRE AFFAIR, now available in stunning new jacket style.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde follows Thursday Next, a literary detective and newlywed, as she embarks on an adventure that begins, quite literally, on her own doorstep. It seems that Landen, her husband of four weeks, actually drowned in an accident when he was two years old. Someone, somewhere, sometime is responsible.

The sinister Goliath Corporation wants its operative Jack Schitt out of the poem in which Thursday trapped him, and it will do almost anything to achieve this. But bribing the ChronoGuard? Is that possible?

Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair, Thursday must battle corrupt politicians, try to save the world from extinction, and help the Neanderthals with species self-determination. Mastodon migrations, journeys into Just William, a chance meeting with the Flopsy Bunnies, and violent life-and-death struggles in the summer sales are all part of a greater plan.

But whose? And why?

Series: Thursday Next

View all
  • The Eyre Affair
    There is another 1985, somewhere in the could-have-been, where the Crimean war still rages, dodos are regenerated in home-cloning kits, and everyone is deeply disappointed by the ending of Jane Eyre. In this world, there are no jet-liners or computers, but there are policemen who can travel across time, a Welsh republic, and a great interest in all things literary...
    Paperback
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    Elsewhere:
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  • First Among Sequels
    Fourteen years after her last adventure, Thursday Next, literary detective, finds herself in an unusual situation. Her job policing the fictional characters of the BookWorld has been downgraded since her previous escapades are now themselves in print. However, a pressing threat may call her back into action: first Sherlock Holmes and then Miss Marple are found dead, stopping their series...
    Paperback
    $2799
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  • The Well Of Lost Plots
    Leaving Swindon behind her to hide out in the Well of Lost Plots, the place where all fiction is created, Thursday Next, Literary Detective and soon-to-be one-parent family, ponders her next move from within an unpublished book of dubious merit entitled Caversham Heights. Landen, her husband, is still eradicated, Aornis Hades is meddling with Thursday's memory, and Miss Havishamβ€”when not...
    Paperback
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    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • One of our Thursdays is Missing
    It is a time of unrest in the BookWorld. Only the diplomatic skills of ace literary detective Thursday Next can avert a devastating genre war. But a week before the peace talks, Thursday vanishes. Has she simply returned home to the RealWorld, or is this something more sinister? All is not yet lost. Living at the quiet end of speculative...
    Paperback
    $2799
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  • Something Rotten
    Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde follows the adventures of Thursday Next, Head of JurisFiction and ex-SpecOps agent, as she returns to her native Swindon. Accompanied by a two-year-old child, a pair of dodos, and Hamletβ€”who is on a fact-finding mission in the real worldβ€”Thursday is tasked with capturing the escaped Fictioneer Yorrick Kaine. Simultaneously, she seizes the opportunity to retrieve...
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  • Pre-order
    Dark Reading Matter
    The final novel in the highly acclaimed and beloved Thursday Next series. Will Thursday find her happy ending? The Dark Reading Matter is a theoretical realm that suggests that the observable bookverse can only account for 20% of the calculated total readable mass. Out there somewhere, possibly, is a larger and more expansive and unseeable 'Dark Bookverse' that contains millions...
    Paperback
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    Pre-order
    Out 13 Oct 2026
  • Lost in a Good Book
    Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde follows Thursday Next, a literary detective and newlywed, as she embarks on an adventure that begins, quite literally, on her own doorstep. It seems that Landen, her husband of four weeks, actually drowned in an accident when he was two years old. Someone, somewhere, sometime is responsible. The sinister Goliath Corporation wants...
    Paperback
    Sold Out

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde has received praise for its originality and wit, drawing comparisons to authors like J.K. Rowling, Douglas Adams, and Lewis Carroll. Reviewers have highlighted its blend of humour and clever storytelling, noting its ability to entertain through both literary references and imaginative plot twists. The narrative is described as a joy to read, filled with wit and a sense of whimsy that appeals to book lovers and those seeking an inventive, humorous escape.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780340733578

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 18 July 2002

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Hodder Paperback

Illustration: none

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 25.0mm

Width: 142.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 271g

Pages: 384

About the Author

Jasper Fforde is the author of three hit Thursday Next novels. After a varied career in the film industry, he now lives and works in Wales and has a passion for aviation.

Also by Jasper Fforde

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  • Early Riser
    The Sunday Times Bestseller 'Fforde pours his brilliant imagination into every corner of this world' Daily Mail 'Fforde keeps the puns and neologisms coming thick and fast while exploring every facet of his novel's intriguing premise' Financial Times Every Winter, the human population hibernates. During those bitterly cold four months, the nation is a snow-draped landscape of desolate loneliness, and...
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  • The Eyre Affair
    There is another 1985, somewhere in the could-have-been, where the Crimean war still rages, dodos are regenerated in home-cloning kits, and everyone is deeply disappointed by the ending of Jane Eyre. In this world, there are no jet-liners or computers, but there are policemen who can travel across time, a Welsh republic, and a great interest in all things literary...
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    $2199
    Elsewhere:
    $2499
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  • The Great Troll War
    The final instalment of the Last Dragonslayer Chronicles, demonstrating that with a small band of committed followers, a large tin of resolve and steely determination, almost anything can be achieved... Sixteen-year-old Jennifer Strange and her sidekick and fellow Orphan, Tiger Prawns, have been driven to the tip of the UnUnited Kingdoms - Cornwall - by the invasion of the Trolls....
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  • Shades of Grey
    β€˜Fforde's books are more than an ingenious idea. They are written with buoyant zest and are tautly plotted . . . and are embellished with the rich details of a Dickens or Pratchett’ Independent Hundreds of years in the future, after the Something that Happened, the world is an alarmingly different place. Life is lived according to The Rulebook and...
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  • First Among Sequels
    Fourteen years after her last adventure, Thursday Next, literary detective, finds herself in an unusual situation. Her job policing the fictional characters of the BookWorld has been downgraded since her previous escapades are now themselves in print. However, a pressing threat may call her back into action: first Sherlock Holmes and then Miss Marple are found dead, stopping their series...
    Paperback
    $2799
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • The Well Of Lost Plots
    Leaving Swindon behind her to hide out in the Well of Lost Plots, the place where all fiction is created, Thursday Next, Literary Detective and soon-to-be one-parent family, ponders her next move from within an unpublished book of dubious merit entitled Caversham Heights. Landen, her husband, is still eradicated, Aornis Hades is meddling with Thursday's memory, and Miss Havishamβ€”when not...
    Paperback
    $2499
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Shades of Grey
    Hundreds of years in the future, after the Something that Happened, the world is an alarmingly different place. Life is lived according to The Rulebook and social hierarchy is determined by your perception of colour. Eddie Russett is an above average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder by marriage to Constance Oxblood. Until he is sent to the...
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  • The Big Over Easy
    It's Easter in Reading – a bad time for eggs – and no one can remember the last sunny day. Humpty Dumpty, well-known nursery favourite, large egg, ex-convict and former millionaire philanthropist, is found shattered beneath a wall in a shabby area of town. Following the pathologist's careful reconstruction of Humpty's shell, Detective Inspector Jack Spratt and his Sergeant Mary...
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  • One of our Thursdays is Missing
    It is a time of unrest in the BookWorld. Only the diplomatic skills of ace literary detective Thursday Next can avert a devastating genre war. But a week before the peace talks, Thursday vanishes. Has she simply returned home to the RealWorld, or is this something more sinister? All is not yet lost. Living at the quiet end of speculative...
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  • Red Side Story
    Jasper Fforde, the acclaimed SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER, invites you to imagine a world where your position in society depended on what bit of the colour spectrum you could see... It's the UK, but not as we know it: civilisation has rebuilt after an unspoken 'Something that Happened' five hundred years before. Society is now colour-based, the strict levels...
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  • The Last Dragonslayer
    In the good old days, magic was powerful, unregulated by government, and even the largest spell could be woven without filling in magic release form B1-7g. Then the magic started fading away. Fifteen-year-old Jennifer Strange runs Kazam!, an employment agency for soothsayers and sorcerers. But work is drying up. Drain cleaner is cheaper than a spell, and even magic carpets...
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  • The Fourth Bear
    The Gingerbreadman β€” psychopath, sadist, convicted murderer and cake/biscuit β€” is loose on the streets of Reading. It isn't Jack Spratt's case. Despite the success of the Humpty Dumpty investigation, the well-publicised failure to prevent Red Riding-Hood and her Gran being eaten once again plunges the Nursery Crime Division into controversy. Enforced non-involvement with the Gingerbreadman hunt looks to be...
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