TheVBs
03-23-2010, 10:12 AM
If you could only recommend one book to someone, what would it be, what's it about and why would you recommend it? Here's my current favorite:
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Summary: An astonishing, hotly anticipated new novel from the great literary fantasist and creator of Thursday Next, Jasper Fforde. As long as anyone can remember, society has been ruled by a Colortocracy. From the underground feedpipes that keep the municipal park green to the healing hues viewed to cure illness to a social hierarchy based upon one's limited color perception, society is dominated by color. In this world, you are what you can see. Young Eddie Russett has no ambition to be anything other than a loyal drone of the Collective. With his better-than-average red perception, he could well marry Constance Oxblood and inherit the string works; he may even have enough red perception to make prefect. For Eddie, life looks colorful. Life looks good. But everything changes when he moves with his father, a respected swatchman, to East Carmine. There, he falls in love with a Grey named Jane who opens his eyes to the painful truth behind his seemingly perfect, rigidly controlled society. Curiosity--a dangerous trait to display in a society that demands total conformity--gets the better of Eddie, who beings to wonder: Why are there not enough spoons to go around? Why is everything--and everyone--barcoded? What happened to all the people who never returned from High Saffron? And why, when you begin to question the world around you, do black-and-white certainties reduce themselves to shades of grey? Part satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller, this is the new world from the creative and comic genius of Jasper Fforde.
I would recommend this because it is one of the most unique stories I've ever read. When it was first described to me I thought I'd have trouble getting into it, but I didn't have that problem at all! This really makes you look at human nature, it's so different and quirky, and it's funny!
Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
Summary: An astonishing, hotly anticipated new novel from the great literary fantasist and creator of Thursday Next, Jasper Fforde. As long as anyone can remember, society has been ruled by a Colortocracy. From the underground feedpipes that keep the municipal park green to the healing hues viewed to cure illness to a social hierarchy based upon one's limited color perception, society is dominated by color. In this world, you are what you can see. Young Eddie Russett has no ambition to be anything other than a loyal drone of the Collective. With his better-than-average red perception, he could well marry Constance Oxblood and inherit the string works; he may even have enough red perception to make prefect. For Eddie, life looks colorful. Life looks good. But everything changes when he moves with his father, a respected swatchman, to East Carmine. There, he falls in love with a Grey named Jane who opens his eyes to the painful truth behind his seemingly perfect, rigidly controlled society. Curiosity--a dangerous trait to display in a society that demands total conformity--gets the better of Eddie, who beings to wonder: Why are there not enough spoons to go around? Why is everything--and everyone--barcoded? What happened to all the people who never returned from High Saffron? And why, when you begin to question the world around you, do black-and-white certainties reduce themselves to shades of grey? Part satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller, this is the new world from the creative and comic genius of Jasper Fforde.
I would recommend this because it is one of the most unique stories I've ever read. When it was first described to me I thought I'd have trouble getting into it, but I didn't have that problem at all! This really makes you look at human nature, it's so different and quirky, and it's funny!