A catch! Friday, 3 April 2009

The Dumas Club has been picked up! Someone read that Aileen had wild released the book and went to find it.

It’s always brilliant when a book finds a new reader; we hope it will continue to travel after it has been read. Take a look at the BookCrossing journal entries to read the ongoing story of The Dumas Club‘s journey.

If you’d like to try BookCrossing yourself, check out our information page or visit www.bookcrossing.com.

Go hunting in Iowa City Wednesday, 1 April 2009

Are you in Iowa City?

If so, get over to The Java House at 211 1/2 East Washington Street!

You’ll have spotted that Aileen Adler picked up a secret message while she was in Doc Rebus’s bookshop (if you’ve no idea what I’m talking about, you’d better watch the story so far and catch up!). But, did you notice she also picked up a copy of The Dumas Club by Arturo Perez-Reverte?

Since then, she’s read the book (and loved it – thanks go to Llednyl who recommended it) and has “wild released” it. It’s been left in The Java House for someone else to pick up and read – it’s underneath a large teddy bear. For more details, take a look at the release notes Aileen has made. If you’d like to catch this book, get over there soon!

(I’ve just looked at The Java House website, and they have free coffee tastings every Friday morning at 11:30am, so that might be the perfect time to drop by. Although, that might be too late!)

(Oh, and The Java House aren’t paying me to mention them, or their free coffee tastings. But, if I ever visit Iowa City I’ll try and talk them out of a complimentary latte!)

Being Emily Thursday, 26 March 2009

Being Emily by Anne Donovan is one of the books that sponsors Canongate donated for The Lost Book to BookCross in March. We’ve been scattering copies all around Edinburgh, and some are travelling further afield. I’ve just finished reading a copy, which I’ll be releasing into the wild later.

We had a great catch this week. Dilks says:

I was leaving the Barony Bar in Edinburgh when I spotted the book on a table next to the door. Having heard of book crossing I was excited to at last see one. The book was one that I was thinking of buying anyway so I enjoyed reading it very much. As I live in Spain I am not sure where to leave the book for someone else to read, but will give it some thought.

FutureCat in Christchurch, New Zealand, also loved the book. The Lost Book has sent various books and goodies to the BookCrossing convention in Christchurch, which takes place on 17-19 April 2009. FutureCat’s been collecting them, but…

On its way to the box of books for the convention, this book “accidentally” slipped into my TBR pile :-) And I’m so glad it did – not only was it a wonderful story, but the language adds so much to it. I can’t imagine a story about the Glasgow tenements being nearly as effective if it was written in standard English. And as well as my inner linguist being pleased to see a book written in Scots (it is a very distinct language from English, and as such deserves to have its own literature), there was a personal pleasure in seeing written down the language I grew up listening to my Granny and Granda speak (although Granny would deny they spoke anything like a Glaswegian – they were from Greenock, and proudly proclaimed the superiority of that city over Glasgow, which was “auffie rough”).

And, blue-fiddle from Roslin says that Being Emily is “A good read” – it’s been passed on to blue-fiddle’s Mum before it continues its journey.

If you’d like to see Anne Donovan reading from Being Emily, there’s an author talk at the Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinbugh on Wednesday 01 April 2009 at 6:30pm (free but ticketed) – more details from the City of Literature website.

Added 28 March: if you’d like to read Being Emily, we’re collecting names for a BookCrossing bookray at the moment. More information.

Books round-up Wednesday, 18 March 2009

Thanks to BookCrossing.com we’ve been hearing from books all around the world. It’s time for an update on some of their stories.

A copy of The Lost World has made it to Charleston, South Carolina – also “a bit of a lost world” according to bookczuk! Another copy has been reviewed by FutureCat in Christchurch, NZ, who says: “the actual book was a pleasant revelation – a great adventure story, with some reasonably valid (for the time) science behind it.” A third has made it to New York and a fourth is in Pennsylvania, where it turns out that cats like dinosaurs. Yet another copy has made it to Rome, via Toronto and another was picked up at a World Book Day event in Oxfordshire. There’s a copy in Calgary and one running free in Maryland – it was set free by ResQgeek, of whom more later, who says: “This story grabs the reader and doesn’t let go until the very last page.” Jare in Albuquerque has a copy and agrees that the book is “great fun”. Technoboy here in Edinburgh has been reading the quick read version of The Lost World at bedtime and has now released the book for someone else to find. Let’s hope it travels safely.

ResQgeek (told you we’d hear more) has also stormed into the lead in a release challenge we’ve set up. We’ve asked BookCrossers (you can join!) to wild release books that Watson the dog would like. We’ve had some brilliantly imaginative responses – ResQgeek released Servant of the Bones at a Dog and Cat Bakery; awaywithfairies has set The Dogs of Pompeii free; KiwiinEngland has released The Murder of Conell Boyle at a greyhound track and Bascula has been thinking about Watson’s travels by releasing The Return Journey in the luggage section of Sears.

And, a preview: we’ve just taken delivery of the two more titles from sponsors Canongate. There’s the brilliant The Gargoyle by Andrew Davison, recently out in paperback, and the brand-new The Earth Hums in B Flat by Mari Strachan. If you want to read them for free, copies will be popping up in public places around Edinburgh during April, and we’ll be starting some BookCrossing bookrays. Our friends at the SCO will also be giving some away at concerts/events so there’s even more reason than usual to check out their programme.