unforum

[Sarah B]

I don't think that'd do much good; the books we're looking for seem to be shelved outside of where they normally are. Hmph.

I'm still waiting for a reply from June. Hopefully there will be one in Birmingham, since that'd be nice and easy for me to visit. And we'll see what we can do about Cheltenham this weekend, assuming no-one else is visiting there?

[Jaybird]

New entries on Amy's blog! (http://amygreenford.blogspot.com/)

Some stuff from Miss Havisham about the fake. It appears that the man who courted her, as it were, was the fake Fforde!

Also, what on earth is that Key about?

[Sarah B]

So ffake Ffforde is Compeyson! Interesting. Very interesting indeed. Hmm. I wonder why he's doing it? Fictional characters in the Outland are unusual, but it shouldn't be too hard to fox him in that case. Fictional characters are easy to confuse because they don't think in the same way as us outlanders.

I need to re-read my Next books for more ideas!

In other news, still no word from June about the location of the Dupines. Anyone else heard anything?

[Jaybird]

Ahhh, but Havvy said the man who jumped out with her was NOT Compeyson.

Of course, this assumes that the Groom was the fake author... when did Havvy come through and when did June start getting the ffake Ffforde emails?

[PuzzledPineapple]

Well, I've made it back and I have success to report. Fortunately a colleague by the name of Tom decided to come with me despite never having heard of Jasper Fforde or much in the way of args (but he did stumble across a geocache accidentally one time, which was the perfect qualification). He was the one who had the success - we covered two floors each and he found three books to my none (apart from Wind in the Willows which I found from myf's pictures because we needed a reference).

The first was The Collected Writings of Edgar Allen Poe, found in the Ornithology section (the clue we had referred to The Raven, ornithology is the study of birds). The riddle inside:

[konamouse]

Most excellent job and wondefully complete reporting. Makes me sad I'm on the wrong side of the pond for this.

[myf]

But, but..... I looked at the ornithology bit. Three times over the two days. And my sister double-checked for me. IT WASN'T THERE!!!!! *sob*

Seriously though, well done for finding those damned things. I knew there had to be more there somewhere, but I reached the end of my tether. I intend to spend a couple of hours in Waterstone's in Reading tomorrow, and at least now we've narrowed down what I'm going to be hunting for.

[echidna]

I've had a go at working out a few suggestions regarding where the remaining books might be. It's a bit rough and I'm not that familiar with a couple of the novels but here goes:

Frankenstein – pregnancy & childbirth – it's often seen as an allegory of these; medicine; science/biology; theology/religion – in creating life Victor is playing God

Great Expectations – self-improvement – Pip's ambition; crime - Magwich (though I think we've had that already); romance/weddings – Miss Havisham (if you were being a bit mean), Pip & Estella's relationship; finance/economics, sociology – much of the plot revolves around money and social class

Gulliver's Travels – travel – obviously ; exploration; transport; power/politics – central theme in the novel; foreign languages – Gulliver is noted for being a gifted linguist and is able to quickly learn the languages of the countries to which he travels

Three Men in a Boat – sorry, not that familiar with this one but you could try humour; travel/boating; geography/history of England

Tristram Shandy – autobiography – again, obviously; humour; war – 1 of the main characters is obsessed with war and recreating battles; philosophy – central theme in the novel

The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare – not at all familiar with this one either but you could try religion/Christianity – it was written as a Christian allegory; politics/philosophy; revolution; crime; detectives/police – it centres around an anti-anarchist division of the police; poetry – the central character is a poet

Alice in Wonderland – travel – Alice's journey into Wonderland; games/hobbies – croquet, cards, etc; fantasy, dream interpretation – at the end Alice wonders if it's all been a dream; mental health – lots of mad characters

Hope that helps

If anyone's needed to go to the Nottingham bookshop then I can definitely cover that one. I might be able to get to the Lincoln one too if needs be.

As an aside, the riddle that PuzzledPineapple found in The Raven (well done, by the way ) has intrigued me a bit. Although the riddle obviously refers to Miss Havisham and Great Expectations, the first 2 lines about the burned bride:

[Canzonett]

If fake Ffforde has some sinister plan with the scribblers, don't you think there might be some clues hidden in the starter and finisher lines we have received?

[PuzzledPineapple]

[flossj]

Agh!! Well done!! Shows just how bad I am at spotting books. I'll go back to Forbidden Planet tomorrow at lunch.

The Forbidden Planet thing was right - see below. Still haven't found them yet, but at least she says they'll be on the right shelf - I've been checking all shelves rather than the missing books.

Just to recap, the following books have been found:
Dorian Grey – found in art history
Wind in the willows – found in crime
Pride and Prejudice – found in politics
Wuthering Heights – found in relationships
The Raven – found in ornithology

The following books remain to be found:
Gulliver's Travels
Frankenstein
Great Expectations
3 men in a boat
Alice in Wonderland
Tristam Shandy
The Man who was Thursday


Latest reply from June...

[myf]

We don't have to search for books in all of them, do we?!? And since when did libraries figure in this?

If we have to raid the libraries as well as bookshops, I can easily do Wokingham today (they open late on Thursdays), and do Reading Waterstone's tomorrow instead. Can possibly do High Wycombe over the weekend, unless someone else would like to take that one? At a push, I could visit Swindon too, but would rather not if I'm going there next Saturday as well. Fareham might also be possible over the weekend if someone does one or more of the others I've mentioned, but it's a bit of a trek.

As for them being under the author's name, bear in mind that Wind In The Willows was actually filed under A in the Crime section, and not under G for Kenneth Grahame (which is where I originally looked, several times). So logic doesn't necessarily come into this thing!

[Jaybird]

I can do IPswich! It's probably the only place i can do so i'm gonna go check now!

[myf]

Go for it Have fun, and don't forget to take pictures of your findings. Good luck!

[myf]

This morning I got the following email. I'm not sure whether it's relevant or not (I've got a bit confused by everything ) so I decided to post it in case it's important.