Lost in a Good Book: Thursday Next Book 2 (The Thursday next series)

by Jasper Fforde

Dangerously Dysfunctional People Argue Live on TV (chat show)

One More Chance to See! (reverse extinction show)

Douglas Adams reference

‘What do you think of the outfit?’ ‘One’s attention is drawn straight to it,’ I replied ambiguously.

He put out his hand. ‘Would it upset you if I didn’t shake it?’ I asked him. ‘Well, yes,’ he replied, trying to be affable. ‘Good.’

Here, have a look at this.’ She passed me a picture of a sweet little old lady on crutches. ‘Old ladies who are not dissimilar to the actress in this picture will have to go without their hip replacements and suffer crippling pain if you selfishly demand cut-price cheese.’

the new thirty-thousand-seater croquet stadium.

‘Did you show her your memory erasure device, Crofty?’ ‘No, he didn’t,’ I said. ‘Yes I did,’ replied Mycroft with a smile,

A tub of withered Tickia orologica had appeared in the porch next to a rusty pogo stick and a broken bicycle.

Edward Lear reference.

‘Who would you prefer to sit next to?’ ‘A nun or a knitting granny, if that’s possible.’ ‘Hmm,’ mused the check-in girl, studying the passenger manifest carefully. ‘All the nuns, grannies and intelligent non-amorous males are taken. It’s technobore, lawyer, self-pitying drunk or copiously vomiting baby, I’m afraid.’

The feeling of weightlessness was odd but it didn’t last long, the increasing deceleration once more gently returning weight to us all.

No, Fforde -- they're in free fall for the entire trip, so weightless the whole way. The deceleration doesn't return weight to them, because it and gravity exactly cancel each other out.

In the Far East many T-shirts and jackets have English writing on them – some of them making sense, but others just collections of words that must appear as fashionable to the Japanese youth as Kanji appears elegant to us. I had seen jackets with the strange legend ‘100% Chevrolet OK Fly-boy’ and later one with ‘Pratt & Whitney squadron movie’, so I should have been ready for anything.

‘Daphne Farquitt?’ I echoed with some surprise. ‘But her books are frightful !’

Entirely fictional, I believe.

For the greatest non-work of non-non-fiction, go to Sub-basement 13, Category MCML, Shelf 2919/B12, where a rare and wonderful treat awaits you – Bunyan’s Boot-scraper by John McSquurd.

‘Herr Magistrate,’ said Snell, as we took the last few paces to the dais, ‘my name is Akrid S defending Thursday N, in Jurisfiction v. the Law, case number 142857.’

142857 is an interesting number. If you multiply by any number from 1 - 6, you get a permutation. E.g. 3 * 142857 = 428571.

ahead of me a pair of middle-aged men were arguing over a signed copy of Kerouac’s On the Road which eventually ripped down the middle.

This is the first reference to American literature I have noticed.

the congenial crack of leather on willow drifted up from the village green.

I don't understand this.

I’ve seen grammasites strip a library to nothing but indigestible nouns and page numbers – ever read Sterne’s Tristram Shandy ?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Grammasites.’

‘Anything is possible right now. We’re in the middle of an isolated high coincidental localised entropic field decreasement.’ ‘We’re in a what ?’ ‘We’re in a pseudoscientific technobabble.’ ‘Ah!’ replied Wilbur, having witnessed quite a few at MycroTech Developments. ‘One of those.’ ‘What happens when the final back-up fails, Wilbur?’