Pre-numbered label used for registration.

Picked up at the Times-News Book sale for education for release.

A heartbreakingly tragic story of a developmentally disabled man who for a short time after experimental surgery has a taste of what its like to be an average man. I'm not ashamed to say I cried my eyes out reading this story.

This won the 1960 Hugo award for best science novellete.

Now offered up for a bookring. Please journal when you receive it and make another journal entry when you send it to the next person.

Shipping order follows:
Eucalia
ResQgeek
TomH1

This ring is complete! That's a first for me:) I want to thank you all for journalling and keeping the book moving along and I loved the notes back to me on the back of my note to you. Thanks again!!

Release planned for Monday, March 22, 2004 at Mailed to a fellow Bookcrosser in n/a, n/a Controlled Releases.

to Eucalia via media mail for Bookring.

I received this book in the mail this afternoon. I just finished reading my previous book last night so I'm all set to dive into this one. Thanks jamieh2003 for sharing it with us!

I finished reading this book today. Here's my official review:

This is the story of a man named Charlie who suffers from phenylketonuria (PKU) back in the days before much was known about the disorder and before babies were routinely tested for this at birth. As a result, he is brain damaged and left with a very low IQ. At the age of 32, Charlie becomes the first human to undergo an experimental procedure that will slowly increase his IQ to genius level. Previously the experiment had only been done on mice, and one mouse, Algernon, was showing very promising results. As Charlie becomes more and more intelligent he sees the world through different eyes. And then Algernon begins to show signs of regression...

This entire story is told by Charlie through a series of progress reports, like a daily journal. At the beginning of the book Charlie can barely read and write and this shows through his spelling and grammar. By the time Charlie is a genius his writing has morphed into something very much more complex. The changing writing style in itself was enough to make the book interesting.

Charlie himself is a very likable character. Through it all he just wants to be loved and to do good. What's interesting is how the way he goes about these things changes as his intelligence level changes. More than anything this is a book about what makes us human. What makes a person a person? What makes us who we are?

This book is an easy read and I recommend it.

Released on Monday, April 05, 2004 at sent to bookcrosser in Mailed, Bookring Controlled Releases.

I mailed this book to ResQgeek this morning. Enjoy!

Arrived in the mail today. I read this in high school and loved it. I'm looking forward to re-reading this great book. I'm in the middle of another book, but I'll read this soon and pass it on.

As I read the book, I realized that I probably hadn't read the full novel in high school, but, more likely, the original short story. This book included a lot of backstory about Charlie's childhood and about his relationships with the other characters that I didn't remember. I also suspect that the novel includes a few to many sexual references to be permissible in a Catholic school curriculum. I did a little Google searching, and I managed to find a copy of the text of the original short story. Its interesting to see the changes that the author made to the original story for the novel. Overall, I think I like the longer version better, because you get a much better feel for who Charlie is and the price he pays for his transformation.

There are a number of things that struck me as I read this book. It was painful to watch Charlie lose his innocence and realize that the people he considered friends were actually making fun of him. While it seems clear that the experiment provided valuable scientific insights, one has to wonder about the overall value for Charlie. Is it better that he was able to experience brilliance, if only for a brief time, or would he have been better off without the experiment? These are difficult questions, without clear-cut answers. The author clearly thinks that Charlie's experiences were a positive thing, but it can be argued that his future will be forever dimmed by the brightness of his past.

This is an incredibly powerful story, with a gripping emotional content. I'm glad I got this opportunity to revisit this story. Thank you, jamieh2003.

I'll be going to the post office later this morning to mail this book off to its next stop.

The book is here in Pewaukee now. I have a few books currently in progress, but will get to this one soon.

I finished the book last night. Because the earlier journalers have already given a good plot synopsis, I won't repeat that.

I had previously read the novel in college (on my own, not as an assignment), but not since then. The thing I remembered best was the revelation of Charlie's "friends" as not-friends when his intelligence first begins to climb. It's always an interesting experience to re-read something you had read a long time ago, because it takes you back to the frame of mind you were in, and sometimes you see huge things in the book that you missed because of who you were at that time. For example, I had not reflected on how the fear of loss of intelligence is a common anxiety in middle age, and that the emotional response may be similar to that experienced by Charlie. For me, Charlie's meeting with his mother was particularly poignant. Secondly, I see the book coming down strongly on the side of compassion, in the old wisdom/compassion debate. I think the common wisdom in our own western society agrees that compassion is the greater virtue. Buddhists have split into the Theravada and Mahayana schools over this very issue. Personally, I don't think the two are so easily separated. Charlie's compassion is of a pretty shallow sort, up until the time he is able to understand the world around him. Interestingly, I think, his compassion becomes the most developed when he has moved above the intellectual norm of his society. Understanding depends on knowledge and compassion both.

Well, this book has become a modern classic, with even a Cliffs Notes published about it. That's almost too bad because it means a lot of people will read it because they are required to, rather than chosing it for its merits, which are considerable.

I sent the book back to jamieh2003 from the Pewaukee Post Office today. Since the book is small and light, it cost less to go first class than media mail. Should arrive in a few days.

Thanks to all who participated in this bookring, it made it safely home to me in yesterdays mail. I hope you all enjoyed the story.

Released on Tuesday, May 11, 2004 at N/A in n/a, n/a Controlled Releases.

Released at the May 11 2004 Meet-up. If other BCers not interested then it becomes an OBCZ release.

now it's going to be an official bookcrossing Zone release. It's sitting on the bookshelf at the Creamery