[gasp] I did it! Well, once this post is finished, I will have done it! Wioll haven be…and that reference right there brings us full circle back to DAY ONE. I swear, sometimes I totally rule.
Okay, um…what was I supposed to talk about today?
[runs to check]
Sorry, I’m a bit scatterbrained today. I’ve been building things out of duct tape, cardboard and fun foam all weekend for my kids for Hallowe’en and so I didn’t get this post written last night like I wanted because I just watched Mockingbird Lane and went STRAIGHT TO BED at MIDNIGHT! I can’t even believe I was in bed at midnight, it would have been nice if I’d been able to sleep as WELL as being in bed, but I guess I can’t have everything.
An Author That I’ll Read Whatever They Put Out
(aka That’s What She said)
(aka…and the award for the most awkwardly worded topic goes to…)
How adorable is this picture? Plus, My Little Pony – my kids would flip out.
If you haven’t read Jasper Fforde yet, I have to wonder why we’re even still speaking. Or, why I haven’t already cast you out for not listening to me about one of the most brilliant and whimsical living authors.
Look. I’m hardpressed to pick a favourite author. I can tell you about many authors that I love, that I will EVENTUALLY GET AROUND TO reading whatever they put out, but Jasper Fforde is the only one that I will drop every single other thing I’m doing to read the hour it comes out.
Which can be difficult, lemme tell you. Because he’s a Welsh author and his primary deal is with a UK publisher (America gets to totally feel second-class in the reading world), his books generally come out over there anywhere from a few months to SEVERAL YEARS earlier than they do here.
So, I spend a lot of my book stipend buying books from the UK just so I can read them because I am TOO IMPATIENT to wait.
Take, as an example, his The Last Dragonslayer books. I searched and searched and searched for these books (the first two, anyway – the third isn’t out yet). The first one has been out since November ’10 in the UK, but was only published over here this month. Man. AND THEN nearly everyone I know that reads him (well, really, Amy, Katrina and Meg were the only people I knew for a very long time) was all “WHAT IS THIS BOOK, I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF IT?!” Yes, capattack totally necessary. So. It’s kind of ridiculous, and I know they do it to coincide with his trips to the States to do booksignings and stuff, but that doesn’t make the READERS feel any better when they have to jump through all these hoops just to read a damn book.
I realize that’s not making me sound very stable, but it’s a valid complaint so I’ll leave it.
Anyway.
I have already read every single thing he’s put out (hee) and will continue to do so, for as long as he writes his special brand of smart, literary (NOT literary as in, this is literary fiction, literary in that it’s all very meta and plays with books and literature in various ways) humour.
Also – Pickwick MAY have been part of the inspiration for Dodisharkicorn (um, hint: she totally was).
PLOCK!
In conclusion – if you’re not already reading Jasper Fforde, go out and get yourself a copy of The Eyre Affair or The Big Over Easy or Shades of Grey – The Road to High Saffron (please, no 50 Shades jokes) and we can maybe still be friends.
Friends, who is YOUR must-read-right-now author?
But I’m crestfallen and hurting on the inside till it gets done, I promise. 
