Booking Through Thursday: Fool

Since it’s April Fool’s Day, I toyed with different ideas of questions for today.

• Who’s your favorite “fool” of a character, and why?
• What authors have fooled you? By a trick plot twist? By making you think their book was any good when it wasn’t?
• What covers have fooled you into reading books you hated … even though the covers were wonderful?
• What’s the best April Fool’s Day trick you’ve ever seen/heard about/done?

Ultimately, I couldn’t pick … so choose the one you like best. Or answer all of them! Or make up your own.

I think Bridget Jones is the only “fool” I can bear to read about! Generally, foolish characters annoy me. I prefer reading about people who are capable of outsmarting me - or who at least refrain from doing dumb things.

I don’t often choose a book based solely on its cover, but there have been a few that looked far better than they were! The Virgin’s Lover by Philippa Gregory irritated me because Elizabeth behaved like a ... well, a fool, over Dudley. (See above.) The Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber looked lovely - and got a glowing review in the Courier-Mail - but produced a whole lot of frustration. (And what a coincidence ... Agnes was a fool.)

And when I did once pick a book on (fabulous) looks alone (Lovesong by Elizabeth Jolley) it bored me so much I couldn’t come close to finishing it.

I don’t recall there being any fools in it, though.