Do not pass go [From the Old Kent Road to Mayfair]

Registered by BC-08041015142 on 2/23/2004
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11 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by BC-08041015142 on Monday, February 23, 2004
A brilliant, funny and witty book all about Monopoly. Its origins, the squares, the stations and the streets of London.

From Amazon.co.uk:
"A book that tells the story of London since the thirties through the 28 streets, stations and utilities of the Monopoly board. In the wonderful world of Monopoly it still only cost [pound]50 to buy a house in Islington, you can move around London with the shake of a dice and even park your car for free. In Do Not Pass Go Tim Moore, belying his reputation as a player who always paid that [pound]10 fine rather than take a Chance, fearlessly tackles the real thing and along the way tells the story of a game and the city that frames it. Sampling the rags and the riches he stays in a hotel in Mayfair and one in the Old Kent Road, enjoys quality time with Dr Crippen in Pentonville Prison and even winds up at the wrong end of the Water Works pipe. And, solving all the mysteries you'll have pondered whilst languishing in jail and many other you certainly wouldn't, Tim Moore reveals how Pall Mall got its name, which three addresses you won't find in your A-Z and why the sorry cul-de-sac that is Vine Street has a special place in the heart of Britain's most successful Monopoly champions."

Now set up as a Bookring


BOOKRING PARTICIPANTS

1. Chelseagirl - Hampshire
2. Lady-Mondegreen - Hampshire
3. Nefertari - Manchester
4. Rainbowandrain - Colchester
5. Moondreamer - Sandhurst
6. Kangaroo - Hertfordshire
7. Jalna - Wrexham
8. Rachels-ratty - Nottinghamshire
9. SwissToni - Nottingham
10. lechatnoir27 – Worcestershire
11. KathyS – Cambridgeshire
12. Camis - Norwich
13. Gooner - Ely
14. LeighBCD - London
15. Tracy200 - Derbyshire, UK

16. kuju - London
17. Agent-Amethyst - Ilkley, UK (Post back to me)

Journal Entry 2 by BC-08041015142 at By Mail in Mail, Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Thursday, February 26, 2004
Released on Thursday, February 26, 2004 at ... by mail :) in Sent to a fellow BookCrosser, Bookring Controlled Releases.

Journal Entry 3 by chelseagirl from Faringdon, Oxfordshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, March 2, 2004
Book arrived at the weekend but just too late to go to France with me :0( I'm not far off finishing another couple of ring books and then will get on with this one!

Journal Entry 4 by chelseagirl from Faringdon, Oxfordshire United Kingdom on Thursday, April 8, 2004
Having spent 24 of my 33 years living on the outskirts of London, I wasn't sure that there'd be too much this book could tell me ... how wrong was I!

Tim Moore is a Monopoly fan who explores 22 of London's 50,000 streets by way of the Monopoly board - hence he visits Mayfair, Whitechapel and everywhere between including the stations and the water works.

The tale of his journey is crammed full with useful - and useless - facts and tidbits of information about London's history past and present: for example, more people visit Selfridges each year than live in Australia, and the average three bed semi in London would have cost £700 in the thirties - £20,000 in modern money. (In fact, if you bought such a house now you wouldn't get much change from half a million.)

While I found the information fascinating there was just too much of it to digest in one read ... this is a book that I need to own, to be able to pick up at will, read about a street or two and then set off and explore it for myself.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this, it is definitely one that I will be looking out to buy at some point.

And finally, sorry for keeping it so long ... and I hope everyone else playing this ring enjoys it too.

Journal Entry 5 by chelseagirl from Faringdon, Oxfordshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, April 14, 2004
Having PM'ed Nefertari twice I've heard nothing from her, so am going to pass this on to Lady-MondeGreen as soon as I have her address. Could you move Nefertari down the list one, please? And once again, sorry for having this for so long :0(

Journal Entry 6 by Lady-Mondegreen from Basingstoke, Hampshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, April 21, 2004
Thanks for this! Looks fun...

Journal Entry 7 by Lady-Mondegreen from Basingstoke, Hampshire United Kingdom on Monday, May 17, 2004
I was disapointed by this and have not wanted to finish it! Maybe it is a timing thing, I sometimes find that I can read a book I haven't got into six months later and enjoy it after all) but I don't think it is. I am obviously in the minority here but I didn't like the author's style and didn't enjoy his humour that much, thinking it contrived and overly crude -and I soon began to find his 'voice' annoying! It is now off to Nefertari.

Journal Entry 8 by Lady-Mondegreen from Basingstoke, Hampshire United Kingdom on Thursday, May 27, 2004
28.05.04 - Heard from Nefertari today, to let me know she has received the book but is unable to journal it yet as she is in the process of moving back home from uni.

Journal Entry 9 by nefertari from Derby, Derbyshire United Kingdom on Sunday, June 13, 2004
Apologies for the delay with journalling this book, but I am now mostly finished moving house and should have it read and back on the move soon. Thanks for organising the bookring!

Journal Entry 10 by nefertari from Derby, Derbyshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, July 6, 2004
I quite enjoyed reading this, but after the first couple of chapters I found the author's voice really irritating and I suppose that never really went away. I don't think it helped, either, that I don't really know London at all, and in some ways I think this book needs more background knowledge of London than that of Monopoly. Glad I had the opportunity to read this though.

Journal Entry 11 by nefertari from Derby, Derbyshire United Kingdom on Friday, July 23, 2004
The book is on its way to Rainbowandrain.

Journal Entry 12 by bookwormteacher from Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Sunday, July 25, 2004
Received yesterday thanks. Already half way through it:)

Journal Entry 13 by bookwormteacher from Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Wednesday, August 4, 2004
This was a funny, entertaining read and very educational too. Although not as great as Bill Bryson I did find myself chuckling on occasion! Made me realise how little I know about London and how much I want to discover. Will be planning a trip very soon I think.

Thanks so much for the chance to read it. Has been sent onto Moondreamer today.

Journal Entry 14 by Moondreamer from Sandhurst, Berkshire United Kingdom on Friday, August 6, 2004
Arrived safely this morning, thank you. Looks like great fun! What a coincidence - I've just seen that there's a half hour slot on ITV1 London in 5 minutes called Do Not Pass Go! - taken from the book, as far as I can see. Off to watch it!

Journal Entry 15 by Moondreamer from Sandhurst, Berkshire United Kingdom on Thursday, June 30, 2005
So very sory I've had this so long.

I had trouble getting into it, then found the middle part fascinating, but got stuck again on the end part.

I've thoroughly enjoyed a lot of it, but I did find Tim Moore has a very definite 'voice' and at times, for me, this interfered with what he was saying rather than complementing it. I'm very pleased to have had the chance to read it, though - it is full of the quirky sort of information that I love, and I may well end up buying a copy just for that!

I'm taking this to the Unconvention to pass on since I seem to keep missing the Post Office these days - I think Kangaroo wants to pass on this one, but I can confirm with her and if so, give it to Jalna.

Apologies again.


Journal Entry 16 by jalna from Wrexham, Wales United Kingdom on Monday, July 4, 2005
Mmm - does Kangaroo think I haven't got enough Ring/Ray books backing up already?!

I've had a quick scan through the previous JEs and this book seems to have had quite a mixed reception so I am interested to see into which camp I will fall.

I will try not to hold it up too long as I can see there are many more readers to come after me.

Journal Entry 17 by jalna from Wrexham, Wales United Kingdom on Saturday, July 23, 2005
I did enjoy this book, but I think I would have got a lot more out of it if I was more familiar with London and could remember the Monopoly board better!

Unlike some people, I did like Tim Moore's style as an author. Reading the foreward I was highly amused and thinking "if only that book about Scrabble was like this I'd have loved it" but I have to admit this did tail off just a little after that. Only a little though.

I will just check that the address I have for Rachels-Ratty is still current before I send the book on its merry way.

Journal Entry 18 by jalna from Wrexham, Wales United Kingdom on Friday, August 19, 2005
Whoops! Nearly forgot to mention that I didn't get a response from Rachels-Ratty, so after a couple of attempts I sent the book on to SwissToni instead. It left here on 15 August.

Journal Entry 19 by SwissToni on Monday, August 29, 2005
Hello. The book has arrived safely with me and I'll be tucking into it fairly soon. Looks interesting, and is a ring I have absolutely no memory of signing up for! Ah well, eh? I'm looking forward to it....


Journal Entry 20 by SwissToni on Friday, February 10, 2006
Oh I am so sorry for holding this up for so long. I read most of this really quickly and then got stuck on it, put it down.... it then got buried beneath a pile of stuff... out of sight, out of mind... do I need to go on. Babs has chased me though, and I have done some snooping about, found it and finished it off. It's now ready to go. Lechatnoir27 isn't taking PMs at the moment, so I'll try and pass this onto KathyS ASAP.

What did I think? I was disappointed. It's a good idea and it starts well, but by the end I felt a little like I was being lectured, and that the author was going through the motions for the sake of it. It's not a bad book, by any means, but I've read better. Still, I suppose I learned a few things about London and about monopoly.

Grovelling apologies again for sitting on this. It will be underway as soon as I get KathyS's address.

Journal Entry 21 by KathyS from Ramsey, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Saturday, February 18, 2006
It's here!!!

I hope to be reading it in the next couple of weeks or so but I've another ring book ahead of it which must go first.

UPDATE - 5 APRIL 2006
I'm about half way through and quite enjoying the ride. Will keep going and get it moving asap. Thanks for being patient with me :o)

Journal Entry 22 by KathyS from Ramsey, Cambridgeshire United Kingdom on Tuesday, April 18, 2006
I'm surprised how much I did actually enjoy the book as initially I thought it might be a little dry. Although not a favourite read, it passed painlessly and I was happy to visualise sharing a stroll around London with Tim Moore. I was, however, left wanting to know more. How did Soho get it's name? What about Goodge Street? I can't help feeling that every one of the nearly 50,000 London streets could tell a story that would be just as interesting. I wouldn't say that Tim Moore is "Our funniest travel writer" (Observer as quoted on the back cover) as I think this honour falls to Danny Wallace, but it was well worth the read.

I have an interest in the history of London, particularly the Whitechapel Road, as some of my family lived near there in the early 1900s and my Dad was born just along from there (Bancroft Road, off the Mile End Road) back in 1929. It's interesting to picture how things might have been for him when he was growing up.

Thanks for sharing the book Glasgowgal and it will be winging its way to Camis in the next couple of days.

Released 17 yrs ago (4/20/2006 UTC) at Posted to the next participant in Royal Mail, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent 2nd class post to Camis today. Hope it arrives safely. Enjoy :o)

Journal Entry 24 by camis from Norwich, Norfolk United Kingdom on Saturday, April 22, 2006
I had forgotten all about this ring until I received KathyS' PM! I've got a couple of books I need to read, then I'll get to this as soon as I can.

Journal Entry 25 by camis from Norwich, Norfolk United Kingdom on Friday, May 19, 2006
I'm afraid I really couldn't get into this one! I tried, but it just didn't grab me so I've given up. Have PM'd Gooner for her address.

ETA - No reply from Gooner, so have PM'd the next on the list!

Journal Entry 26 by camis from Norwich, Norfolk United Kingdom on Thursday, August 10, 2006
Seems no-one is replying to PM's these days! After several attempts to get addresses from those below me on the list, I struck lucky with Kuju! This book is now winging it's way to Denmark for the next leg of it's journey.

Journal Entry 27 by kuju from -- Somewhere in London 🤷‍♀️ , Greater London United Kingdom on Thursday, September 7, 2006
Received in Copenhagen! (maybe about a week ago and not sure why I didn't journal it sooner) I shall start to read it soon.

Journal Entry 28 by BC-08041015142 on Sunday, September 30, 2007
I guess this bookring has now died a death. It *almost* made it round ... but not quite.

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