The Beach
4 journalers for this copy...
I had seen the film, several years ago, and picked up the book out of curiosity - it's not the sort of book I would normally have looked twice at. I am so glad I did!
I read it in one afternoon, from the very beginning I was hooked and I couldn't put it down. There is something fascinating about the idea of a secret paradise, cut off from the rest of the world; there is something appealing about being on the 'inside' of a secret. A really great read.
From the back cover
'Bankok - first stop on the backpacker trail. On Richard's first night in a hostel a mysterious traveller slits his own wrists, leaving a map to 'the Beach'.
The Beach is a legend among young travellers in Thailand: a secret Island Paradise where a select community lives in blissful isolation. Richard sets out in search of adventure, but finds that the Beach is not what it seems. Paradise comes at a price.'
I'll be sending this out on a journey as a bookring before it returns to my bookshelf.
Bookring members;
citrus (Austria)
minx2012 (UK)
kangu (Australia) *****
morpha (USA)
digitaltempest (USA)
meshe (USA)
...and back to me!
I read it in one afternoon, from the very beginning I was hooked and I couldn't put it down. There is something fascinating about the idea of a secret paradise, cut off from the rest of the world; there is something appealing about being on the 'inside' of a secret. A really great read.
From the back cover
'Bankok - first stop on the backpacker trail. On Richard's first night in a hostel a mysterious traveller slits his own wrists, leaving a map to 'the Beach'.
The Beach is a legend among young travellers in Thailand: a secret Island Paradise where a select community lives in blissful isolation. Richard sets out in search of adventure, but finds that the Beach is not what it seems. Paradise comes at a price.'
I'll be sending this out on a journey as a bookring before it returns to my bookshelf.
Bookring members;
citrus (Austria)
minx2012 (UK)
kangu (Australia) *****
morpha (USA)
digitaltempest (USA)
meshe (USA)
...and back to me!
On it's way!
just received it today, going to review it as soon as i read it...
thanks to deerskin again :)
thanks to deerskin again :)
wonderful book, couldn't put it down... it's ways better then the movie (like most books are...)
a fascinating and wonderful written story...
a fascinating and wonderful written story...
the book now continues its journey... mailing it to minx2012 today... enjoy it!
Another of the books I devoured first time around while on a train shuttling to and from work, and now being read again so I can properly appreciate it.
I read The Tesseract a while ago and gave it to one of my friends, having been drawn into it more than I was expecting - it'll be interesting to see if Garland's debut stands up to the heightened expectations I have of him these days.
I read The Tesseract a while ago and gave it to one of my friends, having been drawn into it more than I was expecting - it'll be interesting to see if Garland's debut stands up to the heightened expectations I have of him these days.
Update: book is still alive and well with me.
It was complaining a little about being sat with so many other books, but I pointed out that it was rare a book got to chat with so many other well-travelled novels and I'd be with it very shortly.
Book seemed reassured and perked up quite a bit, especially when I also promised it that it will be read shortly, once a couple of my other literary visitors have moved on again.
It was complaining a little about being sat with so many other books, but I pointed out that it was rare a book got to chat with so many other well-travelled novels and I'd be with it very shortly.
Book seemed reassured and perked up quite a bit, especially when I also promised it that it will be read shortly, once a couple of my other literary visitors have moved on again.
I've been trying to get my brother into Alex Garland for a while, after one of our typically schizophrenic conversations meandered through Michael Marshall Smith's concept of The Gap, extra dimensions, and tesseracts. So when I said I was signed up for this bookring he threatened to steal it off me.
I fough back valiantly though, reminding him that he's always raving about other books to me but is curiously reluctant to let me borrow his copies (I have a feeling it may still be something to do with the incident involving a six year-old me and my milk teeth, and his limited edition silver foil cover copy of The Six Doctors).
Instead I buried it deeper in the pile so he wouldn't see it, and would hopefully forget about it for a while.
I'm glad I did, because as I'm finding more and more these days, my return visit to a book was much more rewarding than my first reading of it.
I read the book first time around just before I saw the film, and the film is what unfortunately stuck in my head. Richard is a much more interesting character in the novel, and the settlement's voluntary isolation from the world is more complete and believeable (possibly because Virginie Ledoyen looked far too well-groomed throughout the film for anyone to believe she hadn't seen her reflection since arriving on the island).
I much prefer the novel's conclusion to the not-quite-but-almost-happy-ever-after cinematic version. Alex Garland goes to some lengths to push home a sense of unease about what Mister Duck calls a cancer - the traveller's never-ending desire for somewhere new and unspoilt, and its consequences. The film suggests that it doesn't matter if you ruin somewhere pristine or destroy something virgin as long as you come out of it okay; the novel is much more ambiguous.
Richard sums it up best as he closes the book:
'I carry a lot of scars.
I like the way that sounds:
I carry a lot of scars.'
I fough back valiantly though, reminding him that he's always raving about other books to me but is curiously reluctant to let me borrow his copies (I have a feeling it may still be something to do with the incident involving a six year-old me and my milk teeth, and his limited edition silver foil cover copy of The Six Doctors).
Instead I buried it deeper in the pile so he wouldn't see it, and would hopefully forget about it for a while.
I'm glad I did, because as I'm finding more and more these days, my return visit to a book was much more rewarding than my first reading of it.
I read the book first time around just before I saw the film, and the film is what unfortunately stuck in my head. Richard is a much more interesting character in the novel, and the settlement's voluntary isolation from the world is more complete and believeable (possibly because Virginie Ledoyen looked far too well-groomed throughout the film for anyone to believe she hadn't seen her reflection since arriving on the island).
I much prefer the novel's conclusion to the not-quite-but-almost-happy-ever-after cinematic version. Alex Garland goes to some lengths to push home a sense of unease about what Mister Duck calls a cancer - the traveller's never-ending desire for somewhere new and unspoilt, and its consequences. The film suggests that it doesn't matter if you ruin somewhere pristine or destroy something virgin as long as you come out of it okay; the novel is much more ambiguous.
Richard sums it up best as he closes the book:
'I carry a lot of scars.
I like the way that sounds:
I carry a lot of scars.'
GOTCHAAAAAAAA!
thanxs for this one DEERSKIN! will get into right after this colour book... btw nice horsey postcard!
keep your eyes out for the book comments at a later date ;-)
thanxs for this one DEERSKIN! will get into right after this colour book... btw nice horsey postcard!
keep your eyes out for the book comments at a later date ;-)
It seems that kangu has left BookCrossing and I am getting no answer to PMs so I will be restarting this ring with another copy of the book (a charity shop find!) which can be seen here;
The Beach by Alex Garland
The Beach by Alex Garland
