on my list of things to do....

Trying to put this one out as a bookring (international). PM me or go to the forum if you're interested.

People so far...
1)torialouise (UK) - FINISHED!
2)Murmurrr (Western Australia)- Done! (+ nang, pleased an extra made it in there!)
3)Newk (Adelaide, South Australia) - FINISHED
4)BecFromMD (Atlanta, USA)- Read and passed on...
5)Bookczuk (Charelston, South Carolina)- Read another copy
6)Eucalia (California)- sent a second copy - Read.
7)Ema375 (California)- Read and passed on...
8)Newf (Ottawa) - Read and passed on...
9)Jengif (Alexandra, Virginia) - Read and passed on...
10)Snowmyst (West Virginia)- Not contactable...
11)Sherria (Connecticut)- Read and returned!
11) Wizzbiz (UK)



I've borrowed these rules from Zenita (who borrowed them from nmarshall88)
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Here are the rules:

1. When you receive the book, make a journal entry so we all get the thrill of knowing where it's at.

2. Read the book, within 30 days, and make a journal entry to tell us what you have thought about the book. You can be as brief or as lengthy as you wish with your thoughts about the book.
Please remember, that there are many anxious readers patiently waiting to read the book after you. Please bear this in mind! If you tend to be a slow reader, like myself, and need the month to finish the book, please make a periodic journal entry indicating how far you are into the story, or thoughts about what you have read so far. This way we know that the book has not been forgotten in your ‘to-be-read’ pile.

3. Send a private message (PM) to the next person in line for their address. If they do not respond within three days, PM them again. If they do not respond within a week of your first message, PM the person after them and contact me.

4. When you are ready to send the book to the next person in line, make release notes/a journal entry to say when the book is leaving your hands and who'll be catching it next, and pop it into the post!

5. To the last person on the list: Please PM me and I will send you my mailing address:)

Thank you for participating!

***When you receive a PM from the person before you, letting you know that you are next in line, and you find yourself overwhelmed with book commitments,(or just life in general) Please PM me and I may be able to move you farther down the list.

Release planned for Monday, March 22, 2004 at ... by mail :) in Sent to a fellow BookCrosser, Bookring Controlled Releases.

Bon Voyage Book, see you in a year or so....

Ooh!! So excited - arrived in the post this morning just as I finished my latest book - must be karma!! Looks brilliant!!

This is the most amazing and original book I have ever read. The story centres around a 16 year old Pi who along with a hyena, a zebra, an orang - utan and a bengal tiger are the only survivors following the sinking of a cargo ship.

The book explores the concept of religion, the strength of human character, and how faced with any situation we can adapt to anything.

The book is extremely well wriiten, easily combining humour, hope and sadness. The book makes for uncomfortable reading in parts - if it were a film I'd be covering my eyes!! I think the quote on the back of the book says it all : " An inventive, shocking and ultimately uplifting story."

There was on passage that really touched me. When talking of religion :

" It was my first clue that atheists are my brothers and sisters of a different faith, and every word they speak speaks of faith. Like me, they go as far as the legs of reason will carry them - and then they leap.

I'll be honest about it. It's not the atheists who get stuck in my craw but agnostics. Doubt is useful for a while. We must all pass through the garden of Gethsemane. If Christ played with doubt, so must we. If Christ spent an anguished night in prayer, if he burst out from the Cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" then surely we are also permitted doubt. But we must move on. To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation."

An absolutely fantastic book - thank you wizzbiz.

Passing on to murmurr now .....

On it's way murmurrr today. Happy travelling book!!

Arrive today and going to the top of the read pile. Thankyou Torialouise and Wizzbiz

Totally absorbing reading that has left me with much to ponder. Disturbing and uplifting story that leaves you with that wonderful feeling of dissatisfaction.

Will post on to Newk early next week after dh, who is halfway, finishes it this weekend.

4/5/04 posted today.

My wife got this through a book-ring and kept telling me all about it - as in: Are you going to read it or can I tell you what happens? I think I only read it to be contrary but then it was a beautiful story that will stick with me

Arrived today. I have another couple on the go, so will continue as soon as I can. First impression is that it is a bit odd, but will persist because I have read and heard such good things.
Thanks to wizzbizz and all others on the ring

mmmmm. It may defeat me. I am sixty pages into it and it does NOTHING for me. I think my thinking is too concrete. I shall persist a bit but at the same time PM the next in line so that when I finish or give up the book can quickly get on its way.
Sorry to be so negative. I shall really try tho.

Well I had heard a lot about and it had good reviews, and it won the prize, so I finished it. And really tried to think better of it. But it just didn't do it for me. Sorry wizzbizz. But thankyou for the opportunity to read it. I am awaiting the address of the next in line and the book will be in the mail asap after I get it.

posted today. By slow mail sorry. Thanks again all. Enjoy your bookcrossing

I am sorry that this is taking so long. There is another copy with same BCID on its way to Eucalia. When the original turns up the new copy has another BCID to which to revert.
I hope this helps out the good and diligent ring master Wizzbizz.
Note that bookczuk has obtained another copy. But I sent him/her the BCID so that his/her thoughts can be shared with us. As after all that is a great part of the fun. And I thought that BecfromMD should be getting the book any day now.
Hope that meets with everyones approval. Sorry to be the cause of a hold up.

Yes, indeed, I did get another copy of the book, and read that, but I am hopelessly addicted to bookrings, thus didn't want to give up my place in the journal. Both my mother (the almost 83 year old bookcrosser, bumma) and I read this book over the summer. Well actually, she stole it from me and then deserted it in the middle of the second part. She loved the first part and hated the second.

I must say that I didn't have the negative feelings bumma did- but then I am a bit of an odd duck! I can see why part 2 put her off though. I found myself wondering how on earth he could recognize all the different fish and birds etc, but then remembered he was the son of a zoo keeper.

On the whole, I thought this not a bad book- it encompassed life and death, faith , survival, fear, companionship and the story of a boy and a tiger...

I must say, without this being a spoiler, that I got a chuckle out of Pi's brother telling him that if he kept exploring religions, he could fill up his entire week, not just Friday thru Sunday.

The picture is of meerkats

PS Newk- I am a she-czuk not a he-czuk

After a brief consultation with bumma, I just found that she never finished reading the book. I then spoke with my fifteen year old son (who had this as part of his required reading this summer) and talked with him about how his grandmother had missed the whole transcript part- which makes a big difference in my mind to how you perceive the story.

His reply was, "It doesn't just change the way you perceive the novel, it is the novel."

He had this whole assignment to do on the book- double journal entries, finding quotes, identifying primary themes (he chose fear), doing a drawing etc. I am glad I am not in high school and that bookcrossing doesn't give assignments for reading.

I had to look on the internet to see what flying fish actually looked like, and thought I'd pass my finding along in a journal entry picture.

I look forward to reading what others think of this book. I still have mixed reactions.

Just arrived today. Looking forward to it!

Phew. Glad it made. I hope you see the irony of it taking a long time by sea

YAY! Glad it made it!!! Ta Newk!

I never actually had this copy of the book since I was sent a 2nd copy to replace the slow-moving 1st copy, but I thought since I was in the original bookring, I'd put my two cents in here anyway :)

I didn't care too much for the beginning of the book or for the end, but the middle was great! It was such an original story. This book made me think a lot, and to step back and take another look at what's important in life. Definitely a worthwhile read--thanks to everyone for letting me be a part of this.

My complete review can be found here on The Book Blog.

Sorry for holding onto this for so long.

This book is a tribute first and foremost to the breadth of the author's imagination, and secondly to his interest in and deep knowledge about religion, zoology, and human nature. Some parts were a bit slow and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending, but overall the story was ingenious and immensely enjoyable.

Off to EMA 375 as soon as I get a reply e-mail with mailing address (forgot to ask sooner).

10/2: Received today. I have two bookrings ahead of this one but will pile through them as quickly as possible!

10/18: Wow, what an amazing story. I recently was laid off from my job so this was the perfect book to read. I sent it off today to the next person. Thx,

I received this in the mail today and have been looking forward to reading it. I've heard so much about this book.

Thank you for sharing it. I hope to have it off to the next person within two weeks.

I'm still mulling this one over in my mind. The story-telling was great, but I'm still trying to work out the underlying meaning, beneath the traditional adventure story of man against nature.

I had heard a lot about this book prior to reading it, but it was nothing like I expected. I quite enjoyed it nonetheless, and will reccommend it to friends.

Released on Monday, November 15, 2004 at about 11:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at BookRelay in Ottawa, Ontario Canada.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sending it off to the next person on the list.

Thanks wizzbiz for sharing the novel!

Life of Pi has arrived safely in Virginia!

Wow! Life of Pi was certainly an interesting book.

I found it really hard to get into and for the first hundred or so pages, I kept glazing over passages. I actually was wondering if I really wanted to keep reading it. Fortunately, the story began to get interesting for me at Part 2: The Pacific Ocean. In fact, I really started to enjoy it and I kept wondering if there was any way possible the story could be true. Yann Martel lost me again when a blinded Pi found another lost soul. The section didn't seem believable to me. Of course, now that I've finished the book I know why. The floating island was also a bit difficult for me to swallow. Interestingly enough it was the only section that didn't have a parallel at the end. I'll stop rambling now. Part 3 of the book blew me away and made the book great.

Mailed to Sherria in Connecticut.

Yay! Perfect timing. I just finished the book I was reading last nite, so I can jump right into this one. I've been looking forward to reading this.

Finished this a couple of days ago, but didn't have a chance to journal it. Sorry!

I'm really glad that I got to read this book. Calling it one of the best books of the year is stretching it a bit, in my opinion, but it was certainly an interesting read. I kept thinking that I wasn't enjoying it, but I kept reaching for it again.

I found the story mostly unbelievable...but then I'd start falling for it. Of course, that's right when the author would throw in something that even suspension of disbelief couldn't get me through. I felt like a yo-yo through some parts of it. Really though, after finishing the book, I have to agree that the tiger story was MUCH more interesting than the one with the chinese cook!

Thanks for sharing this book wizzbiz, and for letting me be part of another successful bookring. This will be on it's way home to you ASAP. I'll be sending it Global Priority, so it shouldn't take too long (but I may wait til the holiday mailing lines die down a bit).

Edited to add that this ended up going out via surface mail about a week after the New Year, because I had a clueless Postal Clerk who couldn't figure out that Global Priority was not overnight service to the UK.

ITS HOME!
I got quite excited having my first ever bookring returned safely to me! I'm glad its had an adventure of sorts, i can't believe what a good condition its in after all of those readers, thanks guys for taking care of my book! I hope your copy fares as well, newk! Happy Days Everyone!!!