"The cult classic that can still change your life... Let the dice decide! This is the philosophy that changes the life of bored psychiatrist Luke Rhinehart -- and in some ways changes the world as well. Because once you hand over your life to the dice, anything can happen. Entertaining, humorous, scary, shocking, subversive, The Dice Man is one of the cult bestsellers of our time. " [from amazon]

Funny and a little bit disturbing is how I found this book.

Still let's see what you lot think:

Here are the participants:

silverstone (Sweden)
starbytes(Malaysia)
veritas9 (Australia)
kuju (UK)
hey-miki (UK)
Perfect-circle (UK)<--- book is here!
Lucycat (UK)
Mojorisin2 (UK)
torialouise (UK)
YvonneP (NL)
kymberlie (USA)
Kernow8 (USA)
yowlYY (UK)
bilbi (France)
michmaarufa (France)
Kanapoutz (France)
suzen (France)
Nut (Ire)



Here are the rules:

1. When you receive the book, make a journal entry so we all get the thrill of knowing where it's at...

2. PM the next person in line for their address.

3. Read the book, and make a journal entry to tell us what you thought

4. Make release notes/a journal entry to say when the book is leaving your hands and who'll be catching it next, and pop it into the post!

Any problems, ping me a private message!

It arrived in the mail yesterday, will read it ASAP and pass it on to the next person on the list. Thank you SwissToni.

I have started reading it now.... but it will take sometime...

Why?
Well....
I find the book both fascinating and disgusting

.... so .....

I want to read it through but need take a break now and then
mixing it with some lighter reading material...
I hope this is OK!!

So, finally I have read this one through, sorry it took so long time. Well, how should I describe this reading experience???

Disgusting, Confronting, Upsetting, Insightful, Fascinating, Tempting and Revolting.

I know a person who makes choices by tossing a dice, this is due to her difficulty to make decisions. Still, to give up all responsibility and will to a Dice?? Scary!

Thanks SwissTony for starting this bookray on my wish!!! I am really glad I have read this book....

I have now finally posted this one... sorry to have kept it so long. It is now on it's way to Starbytes in Malaysia!

Received today! Thanks, silverstone! Really looking forward to reading this one!

Update 7th June 2004: I'm so sorry, I've been hogging the book and I didn't even read it. :~( I tried a few times, but I really just couldn't get into it, so I'll be passing this on to veritas9 rather then keep on stalling it. Perhaps I'll get my own copy and read it in leisure in the future. :D Thanks for hosting this bookring, SwissToni!

Release planned for Wednesday, June 16, 2004 at To a fellow bookcrosser in Adelaide, Australia Controlled Releases.

Mailed to veritas9!!

Just received - travelling for business next week, so will read on the plane...

This arrived last week, all the way from Australia!
I saw a stage adaptation called "The Dice House" at the Edinburgh festival in 2002 which was great so I'm looking forward to reading the original.

I really like the whole dice principle - that by letting dice make decisions for you, you allow other subordinate parts of your personality to be aired. And the way the story showed the development of this idea as a new psychiatric tool was surprisingly believable. But although this was initially engaging and light-hearted reading, the longer it went on, the more of a drag it felt. It would have been twice as good at half the length! By the end, I really couldn't give a toss (ho, ho) about any of the characters. But I was impressed that despite being written in 1971 the book didn't feel at all dated. (Has the world changed so little?!)

Two links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dice_Man
http://www.lukerhinehart.net/index.html

sorry to butt in on the flow of the journal entries here, but I was just reading Miki's journal entry and looking back up at the other entries, and I had to chuckle.

This is the slowest bookray in existence, surely?

This started out in October 2003 and has so far only managed 5 journallers but is somehow still moving... I'm rather afraid that I also set the standard for the reviewing with my initial effort, didn't I?? I just re-read that and felt a little shamefaced that I couldn't think of anything more penetrating to say than that! apologies. I actually found this book to be really provocative. It isn't perfect, sure, but it is a really interesting and pretty well-realised read.

Please don't think that I am moaning though....in spite of everything that I have just said, I am LOVING reading about the continuing journey of this book.... every reader must surely have forgotten by now that they signed up for this more than 18 months ago, so it must be a lovely surprise for them, eh?

If you have just received this book and are reading through the journals... hello, welcome... take your time, relax... read when you are ready... no hurry!

enjoy.

Arrived today. SwissToni, you were right, it was a lovely surprise as I'd forgotten all about it. I will do my level best to read it before I go away at the end of the month, otherwise, I'll pass it on once I return in mid-May.

Thanks to GNER and the company I work for I managed to read this during a return train trip to London yesterday.

I agree with hey-miki, the idea of using the dice to let you freely become all the parts of your personality that you are, is fascinating and I found that aspect with the psychiatry, very interesting. I kept reading partly because I was curious to see just what he came up with next. It was shocking and somehow insightful at the same time and not at all dated.

Will be posting to Lucycat tomorrow.

RELEASE NOTES:

posted to Lucycat this morning

Thanks Michelle (and Tim) - yep, I had *completely* forgotten about this one - to the extent that I borrowed my sister's copy about a year ago (and I've got the sequel on the TBR!)

I'll try and get hold of the next reader straight away - not much point this hanging around here while I've got a copy already, and no, of course I haven't read it yet! I've only had it a year, after all...;O)

Mojorisin2 has passed on the ray, so I'll try to get hold of torialouise next...

Arrived safely - next on my pile to read!

Ooh - a strange one this is!! (Sounding a little too much like Yoda!)

I found this book quite hard to get in to - i thought i was going to have to give up on it and then suddenly it had me hooked! I found the story compelling, confusing, horrific, intriging and totally original. I'd agree with other readers in that the book hasn't dated at all.

The concept of making decisions based on the role of a dice and having to will and belief to follow the outcome, regardless of consequences makes fascinating yet scary reading. Although, on a lighter note - perhaps i now have the solution to choosing the next book on Mount TBR!!!

A book i'll remember for a long time. Posting to YvonneP.

The book arrived this morning in a week in which I received already 4 other ringbooks. I better start reading. :-)

I gave it a try, but, to be honest, I don't care at all what happens to the main character of this book. As far as I'm concerned he can dice his life to an end, but I don't wanna know. So, I stopped reading on page 100, which is twice as much as usually when a book isn't quite my style. Up to the next!

The Dice Man rolled through my letterbox this morning... Thanks!

The book arrived in Nottingham today - funny, as it was one of the first bookrings I had signed for, and at a certain point I wondered if it would ever make it to me.
I won't read the other JEs before reading the book, as otherwise they will spoil me enjoying the story. Just after I was PMed by Kernow8 for the address, this book got mentioned in the Italian BC forum and in a very positive way too, so it made me even more curious.
The curse of the bookrings and rays is not over yet...As I have three bookrings that I need to go through before this one, I suppose this one will stay with me over the Christmas/New Year holidays...thanks to the ringmaster for sharing!

It has been somewhat hard, but I made it and I am proud of it! I felt the powerful need to give up on Luke and his dicelife just when about three quarters of the novel were over, as it seemed to me as nothing new was going to come up, but then I persevered until the end...and why am I not surprised to see that there is a sequel to this book?
I didn't bond emotionally with any of the characters - they were so far away from me as life on another galaxy, really, so this helped to keep things objective for me when analysing the story. The concept is brilliant, another form of "controlled" anarchy if we want, and just the same chaotic. I managed to keep away from the JEs as well as the web sites dedicated to the author and the book, and so I found out only throught the sporadic mentions of events in the news and political people that the novel is happening in the 70s, and it is a good reflection of society back then. However, with the knowledge, soon I started imagining the main characters dressed in that horrid fashion of then and it was no good LOL!
Very funny at times, a bit disturbing, a good idea behind the story really, but I too agree with hey-miky and wish it had been about 150-200 pages shorter, as it gets a bit repetitive with time.

The book will be leaving to France tomorrow...bon voyage et bonne lecture, et merci encore au raymaster!

PS: I forgot to post this link, which gives some more info on the author, the book and things inspired by dicelife :)

Just received today ! The mouse is really cute, thank you !
When you started this 'ring, it sounds really mysterious to me so I'm looking forward to reading it !
Thanks again !

I was really enthusiastic to see how the dice would fit in the book. But then I was shocked and felt ill-at-ease and had to put the book down. When the first "choice" was the rape I can't read the book anymore. Why is it that dice are thrown for the worst ? I can't stand this Luke, I'm afraid. He's just insane, that's my point of view. He's not responsible : the dice did it !!!
However I do find the writing really interested when it mingles different narrative techniques.
A really weird experience.

EDIT : michmaarufa, kanapoutz and suzen asked to be skipped ! So the book goes to nut !

I'm a bit unsure about reading this after reading the journal entries, but I'll give it a go!

I'm not quite sue what to make of this book. In one way it's fascinating and subservise, but in another it's juvenile - he absolves himself of responsibilty by using the dice, but it's still his choice what actions are available so, to me, he's still responsible for anything he does. "Luckily" for the fantasy aspects most of his truely bad options turn out all right - every time he decides to rape she turns out to want it, he decides to kill and it's the most "deserving" character who gets picked. In fact, the only time he does rape someone he doesn't call it that, doesn't even seem to really see that it's wrong. I think Chapter 33, about daydreaming and fantasies, is what the book is about - he gets to have sex with lots of willing people and he changes the world.

I was going to roll dice to decide what to do with this, I even bought some nice red ones, but in the end, I just brought it to the recent BCie meeting.
Taken by herDave.