The first challenge of the year over at the Book a Month Challenge blog is to read a book about time. I chose Jasper Fforde’s Something Rotten. This is the fourth of the Thursday Next books.

It deals with the element of time as all of the Thursday Next books do. The Chronoguard, the Special Operations department in charge of keeping the timeline of history proper, is featured throughout the book. Thursday Next has several revelations dealing with time, and her own personal timeline, and continues to remark on how difficult all of the time “twists” are to deal with. There are many of the usual Jasper Fforde features – character names that are a play on words, a multitude of literary references, and a fast-moving plot that carries you along with it.

I highly recommend this, and all the Thursday Next books, to anyone who’s looking for a “light read” that still has some depth to it.