Bill Bryson's African Diary
20 journalers for this copy...
Update 14th March 2006: I've just spotted labmomnm's bookray announcement in the forum - and have been prompted to put my money where my mouth is. I have therefore donated £25 for myself and £5 for labmomnm, and will donate a further £5 whenever a new new journaller makes an entry. I've chosen to donate via the UK website of Care International.
Update 1st April 2006: Another £15 donated to Care International, representing 3 new journallers (thegoaliegirl, Alvhyttan and Beekeeper40 ). Fantastic!
Update 20th October 2006: Goodness me - what a lot of catching up to do (this is definitely something to do in small bites rather than wait until there are several journallers to catch up on!). Anyway, another £50 has gone to Care tonight, to keep me up to date with the following journallers: rosiewhippet, weesisj, samulli, keksi2, Mickey81, em64, bookreadera, Karenlea, Psyche, gomboggit.
Update 9th December 2008: It's been a while since I last did this, so I'd better catch up. Another £25 to Care today, to account for: BigKat, Thursday5, alice2623663, merimag, -JAFFA-. The book appears to have been left in the wild now - Monkey World, not far down the road from me strangely enough - so it'll be interesting to see what happens now...
9 March '06 - This finally clawed its way to the top of the stack this morning; I read it on the way to work (it *is* really short!). Very nice surface-piece, as kernow8 said. Oh, and I love his flying sagas....I hate planes, too. *Shudder*. You can donate on-line to CARE. I'm sending $25 (US) for myself and will go $5 per journaller after me. Am going to offer this as a ray. Thanks for sharing!
Oh, and there is a sister ray for this book being run by Ebumu.
Shipping order:
thegoaliegirl (OH, USA)
Alvhyttan (Sweden)
Beekeeper40 (UK) international OK
rosiewhippet (UK)
weesisj (UK) international OK
samulli (Germany) shipping w/in Europe OK
keksi2 (Germany) prefers shipping w/in Europe, but will go international
Mickey81 (Italy)
em64 (Finland) international OK
bookreadera (PA) international OK
PRCS (USA) w/in North America
Karenlea (USA) international OK
-Psyche- (USA) USA shipping
gomboggit (OR) international OK
BigKat (WA) international OK
Thursday5 (OH)
c-a-m (Australia) cannot ship out of country
alice2623663 (Australia) international OK (my hero!)
xanapeq (UK) shipping w/in Europe
merimag (UK) international OK
-JAFFA- (UK) wants to be last
Thank you thegoaliegirl for sending it to me and thank you for the nice pic of Mt. Rainier, sounds like we have some geo in common or should I say we have the opposite experiences; you have visited Sweden and I have visited Seattle and Mt. Rainer.
This book looks really nice and has only about 50 pages so I guess it’s a quick read and I will soon be sending it to the next person in line.
Thank you labmomnm for organizing this ray!
Well, I did not appreciate all the jokes; I do think it is difficult to joke about death and misery. Of course we can also use our humour to deal with our agony and if those jokes help people to read about CARE’s work, then it’s OK for me.
Bryson do tell a little about the problems in Kenya and he also let us meet some people that are very happy because they have gotten help from CARE.
I guess this book reach a lot more people, with information about CARE, because it is written by a well known author and in an easy, humorous way. So let’s hope that this little book helps to contribute to a wider understanding about the situation in the world.
And it is a reminder for us that we can do something.
I will keep up my commitment of sending money to Save the Children and to PLAN every month. And I will also continue to look for children’s books to send to Africa.
Thank you labmomnm for sharing this book!
Tomorrow it will be posted for Beekeeper40.
Released 18 yrs ago (4/5/2006 UTC) at to a fellow bookcrosser in book ring/ray, By Mail/Post/Courier -- Controlled Releases
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On its way to Rosiewhippet!
Thanks.
Thanks for that. I will be forwarding it on as soon as I have an address and as part of the '2006 Keep them Moving'
Rosiewhippet. x
Released 18 yrs ago (4/11/2006 UTC) at Controlled Release in -- Controlled Release, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom
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Will be sending it onto weesisj
Book will be posted on as soon as I have got the next person's address. Thanks for this bookring!
It really looks thin enough to read it in half an hour or so, so I probably will just read it on my way to work tomorrow. ;-)
I appreciate the good intention behind making this book but I wish the people responsible would have thought it through a bit better before actually publishing it like it is. It is WAY TOO THIN. It is neither a typical Bryson-book nor a good introduction to Care International. Not everybody has the means to check up in the internet about the organization and not everybody knows Bill Bryson and would buy the book just because of his name.
So I have to say I was quite disappointed by the book itself, but nevertheless impressed (more or less against my will) by the work of CI.
I will not donate any money, firstly because I don't have any to spare at the moment and secondly because as a matter of principle I only donate to animal welfare organizations. But I ordered 3 copies of the book from Amazon and will give them to libraries in my own and neighbouring towns so lots of other people will have the chance to read the book as well and hopefully some of them will feel compelled to donate.
Thanks to Kernow8 and labmomnm for setting up this bookray.
I will send the book off to keksi2 this afternoon.
This is the perfect size for reading on the train, so I´ll get started tomorrow on my way to work.
But then, Bryson´s trip was only a few days.
It´s good to know that buying the book helps support CARE´s work and I´ll follow samulli´s example and buy a couple of copies to share.
Sent to mickey82
This is an interesting diary!
Thanks for the ray!
I have bookreadera's address so I'll mail to her tomorrow.
I am pming for next address right away as this book is so small and I will get it out this week.
PRCS has asked to be skipped at this time (I almost skipped Karenlea as well, not quite sure how that happened.) Will post out as soon as I have an address.
posted out to Karenlea on 8/3/06
I will be sending this book along as soon as I have the address of the next reader. Thank you to Labmommn for sharing!!!
I have Psyche's address and the book will be mailed out to her tomorrow. -9/22/06
Released 17 yrs ago (10/8/2006 UTC) at A fellow bookcrosser in By mail, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases
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I will send this book on its way this week! The book is traveling with companions--a bookbox happened to come up to the next person in this ring at the same time, so off they will all go! Thanks for sharing this little book with us!
I would like to know of Jillani Ngallas' fate, if he ever became a paleontologist, if the mention of his name in this book caused anyone to help him out.
I will PM the next in line. Thanks for including me in this.
Updated 10-30-06 Mailed today.
After several days of riding around in his briefcase I managed to reclaim it so I could read it. I found a few spare moments in my over scheduled November and went for a visit to Kenya. CARE has always been one of my favorite charities and the visit just reinforced my reasons why. And to have Bill Bryson as a travel companion, that was wonderful. I love the way he looks at the world. Thank you for letting me participate in this ring. I can tell I'm going to have to get my own copy/copies and give it/them away.
Book will be off in the mail in a few days when I get a chance to go to the Post Office. November is the only month where finding a time to get to the PO is a problem so, of course, that's when my turn would come. I think there's a cosmic rule about things like that.
"But the kids I said. They have no future."
"I know," he said sadly. "I know."
But....the good news is they DO have a future.. and it is here in the school where I teach. The Columbus, Ohio metro area has the second largest Somolian population in the US and we have many students in my school who were born in that refugee camp and who now attend our wonderful suburban school where they are getting the best education that a progressive US suburban school district has to offer. We have special programs just for these students and they do have a future.
PM ing the next person on the list. If the cost for air mailling the book to Australia is reasonable I will send it that way, if it is too expensive I will send it by surface mail.
A family from our church have been missionaries in Nairobi for the past few years, and they come back every so often to have a break and give updates etc. The husband is a doctor and he has been working with women in particular, and they've set up card making to generate some income for women over there. Anyway, much of what Bryson experienced is very similar to what I'd already heard from the missionary friends. The descriptions of the slums is something that definetely sticks in my mind. It makes me very sad, particularly that when Bryson comments that the kids have no future. I'm going to donate some money to Care seeings as how I didn't purchase the book.
Thanks for the opportunity to read the book. I'll pm the next person now and send when I can.
Released 16 yrs ago (4/17/2008 UTC) at Monkey World in Bovington, Dorset United Kingdom
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