The Well of Lost Plots

by Jasper Fforde. This guy is fascinating. I'd love to walk around inside his head.

Though I liked books 1 and 2 books better - the third one The Well of Lost Plots had a part that I couldn't get out of my head. The excerpt below is from page 48. It's where the officer Thursday Next is introduced to the Well of Lost Plots in the book world, by Snell a Jurisfiction officer.

"You Outlanders! Books may look like nothing more than words on a page, but they are actually an infinitely complex imaginotransference technology that translates odd, inky squiggles into pictures inside your head...

"Well," I sighed, trying to get my head around this idea. I had always thought novels were just, well, written."

"Write is only the word we use to describe the recording process," replied Snell as we walked along. "The well of Lost Plots is where we interface the writer's imagination with the characters and plots so that it will make sense in the reader's mind. After all, reading is arguably a far more creative and imaginative process than writing; when the reader creates emotion in their head, or the colors of the sky during the setting sun, or the smell of a warm summer's breeze on their face, they should reserve as much praise for themselves as they do for the write--perhaps more."

This was a new approach; I mulled the idea around in my head.

"Really?" I replied, slightly doubtfully.

"Of course!" Snell laughed. "Surf pounding the shingle wouldn't mean diddly unless you'd seen the waves cascade onto the foreshore, or felt the breakers tremble the beach beneath your feet, now would it?"

"I suppose not."

"Books"--Snell smiled--"are a kind of magic."

I love that... "books are a kind of magic." I totally agree. I love the... what I imagine is the author "winking" at his readers. Clever, witty, funny... imaginative guy.