Journal Entry 1 by karendawn from Lafayette, Indiana USA on Thursday, January 22, 2004

From the back cover:
Ned Henry is badly in need of a rest. He's been shuttling between the 21st century and the 1940s searching for a Victorian atrocity called the bishop's bird stump. It's part of a project to restore the famed Coventry Cathedral, destroyed in a Nazi air raid over a hundred years earlier. But then Verity Kindle, a fellow time traveler, inadvertently brings back something from the past. Now Ned must jump back to the Victorian era to help Verity put things right--not only to save the project but to prevent altering history itself. 

Journal Entry 2 by karendawn from Lafayette, Indiana USA on Monday, May 24, 2004

Before reading this one myself, I sent it out on a bookring. It successfully came back to me. It is now safely home and back on my TBR stack (but now much closer to the top!)

Participants:
JeepACV - Maryland
Sidney1220 - Maryland
mlbish - Illinois
MollyGrue - Washington
jamesmum - California
minx2012 - UK
Back to me - karendawn - Indiana 

Journal Entry 3 by karendawn at on Friday, May 28, 2004

Released on Friday, May 28, 2004 at Mailed to a fellow Bookcrosser in n/a, n/a Controlled Releases.

traveling to Maryland 

Journal Entry 4 by JeepACV from Baltimore, Maryland USA on Thursday, June 03, 2004

Arrived in today's mail. Looks great -- it'll be bumped to top of TBR list so it can get moving.
Thanks! 

Journal Entry 5 by JeepACV at Bookring in Bookring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Released on Tuesday, June 08, 2004 at Bookring in Bookring, A Bookring Controlled Releases.

I had a hard time enjoying this book. I'm quite surprised, because I've read 2 other books by this author (The Doomsday Book and Passage) and I liked them quite a bit.
To me, the dialog never seemed to get anywhere. Kind of like a sitcom, when you see the miscommunication coming a mile away.
I'll admit, I skimmed the last couple chapters, just so I knew how the story ended.
Hopefully others will enjoy this book more than I did.
It's on it's way to it's next destination. 

Journal Entry 6 by Sidney1220 from McLean, Virginia USA on Saturday, July 03, 2004

I agree with JeepACV that the book read like a sitcom, but I still enjoyed it. The scientific theories about incongruities and the net were hard to follow, and I couldn't care less what happened to the bishop's bird stump. But it was fun watching the hero and heroine running around, trying to get history back on its proper track. I would definitely check out this author's other books given a chance.

7/6/04

Mailed this book to mlbish today. 

Journal Entry 7 by mlbish from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA on Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Caught! Thanks very much, karendawn and Sidney1220! I really loved The Doomsday Book, and I had an enthusiastic recommendation for this one from two of my very good friends, so I'm really looking forward to picking it up.

I will read and pass along as soon as I can. 

Journal Entry 8 by mlbish from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania USA on Friday, September 03, 2004

Finally finished! Whew! I'm a little backed up these days.

I was a tiny bit disappointed in this book. It had come very highly recommended, and it was good, but it wasn't as great as I had hoped. It didn't seem to be as funny as I thought it should be, based on what I had read. There were some silly moments, and I did laugh out loud once or twice, so I really shouldn't complain. I thought the sarcastic asides by the main character were funny. I usually appreciate that sort of humor. And the bit about the dog and cat jockeying for position when they were sleeping outside with Ned was funny too. :-)

The story began a little slowly, but it picked up to a reasonable pace after the first several pages. I actually had to read the first 30 pages twice because I kept missing things. It's possible that it's because I was very distracted while I was reading it (one of the reasons I took so long), but it seemed to me that important details were inserted in such a way that they were sometimes easy to miss.

I finally realized that part of the reason I had no idea what was going on was that the main character had no idea what was going on. The author did a good job of portraying Ned's clueless, timelagged feeling to me. I skipped back several times to see if I missed stuff because he was so foggy about what he was supposed to be doing. And I actually started aching for him to just be able to go to bed and get some sleep. I know what that feeling is like, when you just need sleep and you can't seem to get it, and it was painful to read about someone else in that situation

I thought we could have been a bit more clear on what the bishop's bird stump actually was. I wondered about it for a good part of the book. I thought maybe I was missing something I should know about Victorian art.

The ending was clever. I liked the idea of all the happenings being a result of an incongruency that has not even occurred. However, I would have appreciated a little more time spent on that and a little less time spent on all the stuff in the middle of the book, namely getting Tossie to Coventry and meeting the neighbors, etc., because I just felt like some of that wasn't important.

Thanks for sharing, karendawn! I have been wanting to read this book, and I'm glad I did. On to mollygrue today. 

Journal Entry 9 by MollyGrue from Tacoma, Washington USA on Wednesday, September 15, 2004

I have a few rings ahead of this, but hopefully I can get to this soon. 

Journal Entry 10 by MollyGrue from Tacoma, Washington USA on Tuesday, October 26, 2004

Funny charming chaotic time-travelling story. I really liked this one and don't understand why I had such a time getting through it.

Off to the next reader! 

Journal Entry 11 by MollyGrue at in the mail in Bookring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Friday, October 29, 2004

Released on Friday, October 29, 2004 at about 3:00:00 PM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at in the mail in Bookring, A Bookring Controlled Releases.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to Jamesmum. Happy reading!

DC# 03040370000131395852 

Journal Entry 12 by jamesmum from Richmond, British Columbia Canada on Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Got it! Will read and journal.

UPDATE 11/11/04: Oh my, I am having fun with this book! I'm about 1/3 of the way through, and have been laughing out loud all the way. Funny stuff!

11/16/04: What a wonderful story! I love the idea of a self-correcting universe, and the book's approach to the question of design vs free will was most amusing. Now I need to find more books by this author...

Off in the mail today to Minx2012 in the UK. 

Journal Entry 13 by minx2012 on Sunday, November 28, 2004

Apologies! I got this about a week ago, but have only just got round to registering it... I actually started reading it this afternoon and spent a couple of hours in fits of giggles.
So far, it reminds me a lot of Jasper Fforde's books. The writing - and indeed the characters - make it easy for you to accept this world where the impossible (or at least, highly improbable) is part of the everyday. No dodos so far, but the cat and the various dogs who've been introduced are compensation enough.

Gromit adds that he's very happy to hear cats are extinct in the 2140s. He's a very doggy dog, you know. 

Journal Entry 14 by minx2012 on Wednesday, December 08, 2004

How to truly appreciate Ned Henry's desire for sleep: read this book while on nightshifts.
To be honest, I've been working shifts long enough that I can go to sleep and stay asleep for as long as I need, regardless of the time of day, but when you're just going to bed at 0700 it seems a little easier to relate to poor addled Ned.
At first the talk about incongruencies and slippage really stumped me, and I flipped over it like I tend to skip the long poems and songs in Tolkien. You figure if it's important you can always check back later. But then I actually started to understand it (must be all those years watching Star Trek and trying to explain to muddled friends how the different timelines could converge in various episodes) and started being able to work things out for myself.

Perhaps when I'm a little more awake I'll find some more of Connie Willis's books.
 

Journal Entry 15 by karendawn from Lafayette, Indiana USA on Thursday, January 13, 2005

Yipee! The book returned to me today. Thank you everyone for a successful bookring. I'm looking forward to reading this one myself now! 

Journal Entry 16 by karendawn from Lafayette, Indiana USA on Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Excellent book! I just had to keep reading to find out what was going to happen. I did get a little lost in some of the time travel explanations, but I didn't worry too much about it. I am a little upset to have had the ending of The Moonstone revealed as I had not yet read it, but otherwise it was fun trying to figure out the many allusions. I was fairly sure who Mr. C was, but not always confident about my guess, so it was only a slight surprise. But I loved the characters, especially Ned and Verity, and that is what often makes a good book for me. 

Journal Entry 17 by karendawn at on Friday, August 26, 2005

Released 6 yrs ago (8/26/2005 UTC) at

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

on its way to appaloosatb who picked this one up in the BookRelay YBS#7! 

Journal Entry 18 by appaloosatb from Rochester, Minnesota USA on Friday, October 21, 2005

Thanks so much for the book! I could've sworn I journaled it when it arrived, sorry about that.

This was a lot of fun! I have "Uncharted Territories" by the same author on Mount TBR, so maybe I'll have to dig into that one soon. ;)

This is going to V.C. in Las Vegas, NV through paperbackswap.com. Hopefully they will journal it and pass it on when they're done to continue its journeys.