I just finished Lost in a Good Book, the second in the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde and I have to admit I've loved both of them!  Literary detective in an alternate history strives to keep the peace in both her world (1985 UK) and the world inside the books...

Would recommend starting with #1, The Eyre Affair, though not entirely necessary.

I think this is a great series, too.  I haven't read the most recent one yet.  My husband liked it, but not quite as much as the previous books. 

Have to resucitate this thread - I am loving these books!  Just finished Something Rotten.  They remind me of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.  Any similar authors I could try?

I started with the first one and then read them all one after the other.  Not only were they very entertaining but they kept you on your toes with all the literary references and the double meanings.  I'm glad that other people feel the same as I do about these books!

Thank you very much, Jen, for reviving this thread. I just added the first 3 books to my wishlist. They sound right up my alley.

I love the Thursday Next series!  I can't wait til the next one comes out.  Jasper Fforde also has another series, the Nursery Crimes, that's really good.  The first one is The Big Over Easy, the second one is The Fourth Bear, if you're looking for more like Thursday Next you should check those out.  Also try The Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse by Robert Rankin.

I want to be Thursday Next when I grow up. I LOVE them!

I LOVE Thursday Next series.  Jasper Fforde has another series called the Nursery Crime series, which is also enjoyable. Detective Jack Spratt and his partner Mary Mary solve crimes like who pushed Humpty Dumpty off of the wall in Big Over Easy and who killed Goldilocks in The Fourth Bear.

Another author sort of up Fforde's alley that I enjoy is Rober Rankin.   He has a book called Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse that involves someone murdering nursery rhyme characters.  A Teddy Bear helps solve the crimes and there are dolls who are members of a religious group called "Sisters of the Unseeing Upness."  The are dolls whose eyes shut when they are laid on their backs so they believe the sky is a holy place and should never be looked upon. It's a really clever book with an awesome title.  Definitely an adult book though.

ETA: Vanessa, I just saw your post.  I concur.

Thursday Next is hilarious!   I have read and listened to these books several times and love the inside jokes and literary references.

I think Jasper Fforde is a genius-when I want a good laugh, I think of his books.  Did anyone think of him when Pride and Prejudice and Zombies came out earlier this year?   I thought that was a lazy way to do a book, just take the other text and insert your own stuff in it.  At least Fforde has his own story and weaves the classic references into it...

Just wanted to bump this thread up because I do so like his books :)

Thank you so much for this thread - I'm a sci-fi fan who doesn't normally venture into the literary fiction aisle, so I wouldn't have found Thursday Next without it.  I loved, loved, loved The Eyre Affair (the Rocky Horror-style production of Richard III was hilarious), and I can't wait for Lost in a Good Book to arrive.

I think P&P with Zombies would have been amazing if Fforde had written it.  The zombies could be coming from other books in the great library and Thursday next could help get rid of them.  It would have been great. 

I am always amazed at how much stuff he thinks up.  There was the spec ops teams and the different world where they have dodo pets and mammoth migrations and jurisfiction.  I would love to ahve a conversation with him.

Tom Holt, is another author that reminds me of Fforde :) Robert Rankin is great and I have read all his books (bar the latest one Nerco)

Whole chocolate bunnies is part one of two books. The second one is the toyminator.

Christopher Moore has that funny weird humour that is similar to Fforde.. So that might be worth looking into.