"An unread book does nobody any good. Stories happen in the mind of a reader, not among symbols printed on a page." Brandon Mull.

Congratulations, you have picked up a travelling book!
If you have a moment, we'd love you to let us know you have the book as we're keen to follow its journey. You can even post a review when you've read it before passing it on to the next lucky person.
Happy reading!

I brought this home from the Official BookCrossing Shelves in the Customer Services Lounge within the Trinity Shopping Centre, Leeds while dropping off a few books there this afternoon. I choose it from those on offer because I aim to read two or three nonfictions a month so am always on the look-out for likely candidates and because I sort-of enjoyed The Smoking Diaries by this author - not a lot!!! LOL!

Amazon Editorial Review: "From heartbreaking reflections on his own mortality to characteristically outrageous asides—"everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who was given six months to live, and here they are, only just dead, eight years later or, in exceptional cases, here they still are, eating oysters and boring the shit out of people"—Gray's self-proclaimed "last written words on the subject of myself" records his extraordinary emotional journey. Darkly comic depictions of the medical team are set against joyful accounts of sunlit days with this beloved wife, Victoria, in Crete and a beautiful early summer in Suffolk. Woven into the narrative are arguments with himself, "Dialogue between a Thicko and a Sicko," a shameful childhood memory, and a masterfully tense "distraction," written in real time while waiting for his final prognosis—and smoking one last cigarette. Written with exceptional candor and a poignant reluctance to leave this world behind, Coda is painful and beautiful."

Simon Gray, 1936 - 2008 RIP.
I started this memoir almost immediately and have finished it already, a really good read.
Three months after being diagnosed with lung cancer and given around a year to live, the author decides to write an account of what he calls "the beginning of [his] dying." It's not a diary, it's not even chronological, but is what I'd call a collection of haphazard musings .... Much of it's written during the holiday in Crete he and his wife took after his first round of radiotherapy. I wouldn't have thought reading about someone's last year would be funny - but it is! It's also interesting and rather sad!
Recommended!

On the bookshelves in the pub where the York BookCrossers hold their monthly meetings. I really will have to get along to another one one of these days .... In the meantime, I'll continue to enjoy the occasional lunch/drink in these pleasant surroundings :-)

Well over a million people around the world give their books a unique BookCrossing IDentity number (BCID) before sending them out to find new readers. Since the start of the scheme in April 2001 more than eleven million such books have been put into circulation. This is one of them!

Our hope is that we can track the progress of our books once they've left our hands - and that's possible if finders like you visit the website, key in the BCID and leave a comment, however long or short. It's fun, it doesn't have to cost anything, although the site always appreciates donations towards running costs, and you can remain anonymous if you wish. You don't have to join but if you do you'll be able to number and track your own books!

Since this has been kicking around for a while now, in order to free up some space on the Brigantes OBCZ Bookshelf, I thought I'd move it on to the Ye Olde Starre Inne OBCZ Bookshelf - where hopefully it'll find a new reader...

releasing, as promised...