Time for books Saturday, 30 May 2009

Here’s a quick look at some of the books we’ve been tracking, and their readers. BookCrossing.com lets us follow books on their travels – we’ve left some in public places for people to pick up, given some away through the BookCrossing forums and handed some out at concerts.

Copies of Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Lost World have travelled around the globe (one copy’s even been kayaking thanks to TomHl in Wisconsin!).

Jozebedee in Cheshire says “Wow – I loved this book. A good old classic adventure story of which I’m sure there are many of us who like to dream that we could be there taking part” and this copy is now with o0o-aRiMa-o0o in Spain.

CaterinaAnna from Coventry has read and reviewed (“…this certainly shows Doyle as the forerunner to Asimov in the world of sci-fi” – not necessarily a compliment!) a copy which is now with nordie in Birmingham.

Another copy was read by bookczuk in South Carolina (“An exciting tale, told in a completely different fashion from the writers of today. One could view it as “dated” but I preferred to view it as a trip back in time, and found it delightful in many ways.”) and Megi53 in Virginia (“Now I see why so many of our 8th-grade students love Conan Doyle’s books. His writing is timelessly funny!”) before being left at a pterodactyl swamp!

bookguide in The Netherlands also comments on the humour (“there were several places where I laughed out loud, particularly when the narrator describes Professor Challenger’s appearance and behaviour”) – that copy was then read by carlissa in Miami who enjoyed it so much that she bought another copy for her daughter, cheeseball, whose review is brilliant and includes the insight that “The ending leaves you wanting MORE, wanting to know what happened to the characters and what other adventures they fell into — but not wanting so much more than you yearn for a sequel. It’s like eating one Twinkie that was so amazing, and then leaving the second Twinkie untouched because you know it could never be as good or as satisfying as the first. (I’m a sucker for really bad analogies.)”

Another copy has reached Wandering-B in Hong Kong and one has reached T02S03B11D20 in Michigan, via Kigi in Essex (who says, “A great story”).

There’s a copy running free in Dublin after being read by sonia23 in Georgia USA and KiwiinEngland in Dublin (“I’m pleased I read this book, and also the readers guide which outlined what was happening at the time this book was published eg Darwin’s theory of the Origin of Species, the excitment dinosaur fossils were creating, and the development of “scientific romance” fiction.”)

grubsneerg in Pennsylvania (“I just finished reading this delightful adventure. …I have often wished I could be a great writer, but *reading* a great writer’s work can be just as satisfying.”) has also set a copy free.

rossbuddie in Amsterdam is also planning to wild release a copy – “It was a great read, and it’s very satisfying knowing that I am now passing it on to someone else who will in turn pass it on…and hopefully get the same enjoyment I did from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic adventure.” (rossbuddie also says “thelostbook.net and bookcrossing.com are my nicest finds on the internet so far in 2009″ – thank you rossbuddie!).

Bookworm-lady in Madrid has a copy (via Albuquerque!).

Molyneux in Oxford released one at a Readers Voice Convention at Jesus College (and says, “Although this has always been a favourite story of mine I had never actually read the book! So thank you for this opportunity – I loved it.”).

Hayes13 in Rome has set one free in Vatican City (“Arthur Conan Doyle certainly knows how to tell a gripping tale: it’s funny where it needs to be and serious ditto”) and catherine17n from Edinburgh is planning a release in Budapest, while alisonj set a copy free in the grounds of James Cook hospital in County Durham.

FutureCat in New Zealand has read one and says “the actual book was a pleasant revelation – a great adventure story”

hyphen8‘s added a copy of their own to the reading campaign, and released it at the Hawaii Book and Music Festival – let’s hope it finds a new reader!

Several copies found new readers at the BookCrossing convention in Christchurch this month: one’s with guinevere69 in Western Australia; one was released by awaywithfairies in Victoria, Australia; one’s with Pixette in Sydney; one was released in Christchurch by Tinina67; and one is with bookworm76 in Queensland, Australia.

Phew! I didn’t realise there were so many reviews of The Lost World I hadn’t blogged about. I’m going to stop here and post later about the other titles we’ve been tracking.