Let’s say you’ve read all the Harry Potter books, seen all the movies, even listened to the audiobooks and read all the books we recommended on Friday. What could you possibly do next? Below are some adult novels with similar themes or atmospheres to the Harry Potter series. We’ll look at what the kiddos (and the young at heart, too) should read later this week.

First, we have to recommend the Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde. Set in a slightly surreal version of Great Britain, these books star Thursday Next, a Special Operative in literary detection. She can jump into and out of novels, arrest nursery rhyme characters, and solve the greatest crimes in literary forgery and alteration. Her father is a rogue member of the Chronoguard, a section of the government charged with keeping history on track. Her sometime partner is Spike, a vampire-hunter. Try The Eyre Affair; it’s the first novel in the series. You’ll find the books rollicking, funny and imaginative.

Next on our list are the Hitchhiker’s Guide books by Douglas Adams. Starting with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, they travel through space with last human Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect, a roving researcher for an intergalatic travel guide. These are fun books with a wicked British sense of humor, where the absurd is as likely to happen as anything.

Our other recommendations include Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke, the Amelia Peabody books by Elizabeth Peters, and Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchet. Any one of these books is filled with magic, mystery and good times.

Tags: Harry Potter

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 29th, 2008 at 1:22 pm and is filed under Fairborn, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response.