English literature

Here's the thing about these Jasper Fforde books. They're interesting and a lot of fun, and you know I love a universe where everyone is obsessed with books, but something is missing. And I think I decided what my main problem is. I don't give a flying fat crap about Thursday Next. She's the effing narrator and main character, and all this crap happens to her, but I don't care. I care even less about her than I do about Harry Potter, because he's an orphan, and I always have a soft spot for kids, anyway. But Thursday... Even though the books are written in the first person, I feel like we don't know her. I never connected with her--and it should be easy to connect with a first person narrator. I care more about her time-traveling dad and her inventor uncle and her gay cleric older brother--and even her one-legged husband--than I care about her. Also, more than the characters, I just love to read about the books.

I think, maybe, part of my problem is that I can't handle a female first-person narrator if the author is male. I just can't. There's some kind of disconnect there--like how could a guy really understand what it's like to be a woman? I don't know if I have this problem with female authors writing from a male first-person point of view, because I can't think of any. Oh wait. Beverly Cleary's Dear Mr. Henshaw. And Nate the Great. I don't know; I don't think I had any problems with those, but that could be because they were about kids. I don't have a problem if a guy writes in the third person about a female main character, just first person. Maybe that's been hindering me from getting into Thursday. I mean, even if I didn't really like Harry, I still, you know, felt like he was a real, fleshed-out character. I don't have any sense of Thursday as a character. I can't picture her as a three-dimensional human being, but I can see her dad and Mycroft and Joffy. I don't know. I think I'll read something else for a while. Like Stardust! I need to get my hands on that.

My other problem? Too much Charles Dickens.