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Journal Entry 1 by dallasjay from San Diego, California USA on Wednesday, May 26, 2004
 This book has been placed on reserve for my bookring. If you would like to sign up for the ring please PM me with your username and location so I can add you to the list of participants.
Current Participants (Name, Location, Shipping preference):
1) jubby, Australia (international okay).
2) Lorelei03, New York (US only).
3) novasoy, Kentucky (International okay).
X) Back to dallasjay, California.
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Journal Entry 2 by jubby from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Monday, August 23, 2004
Received today.
Thank you so much Dallasjay - you're a gem!
I'm still finishing 'Quicksilver', so this might take a little bit longer .
Plan to start reading this weekend.
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Journal Entry 3 by jubby at Bookring in Bookring, A Bookring -- Controlled Releases on Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Released on Tuesday, August 24, 2004 at Bookring in Bookring, A Bookring Controlled Releases.
After a flurry of emails, got this one sorted.
Happy reading Lorelei03, and again thank you Dallasjay.
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Journal Entry 4 by novasoy from Louisville, Kentucky USA on Monday, November 01, 2004
This is next in my queue after Quicksilver and the book I'm currently reading, which I am almost done with.
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Journal Entry 5 by novasoy at on Monday, December 20, 2004
Released on Monday, December 20, 2004 at about 11:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Controlled Release in Escondido, California Controlled Releases.
RELEASE NOTES:
Mailing back to dallasjay. Thanks!
"The Confusion" was quite the middle book. I only learned about halfway into it that The Baroque Cycle is actually a single monolithic novel broken into three (a la Lord of the Rings). It's not every day that I read a 2,700 page novel, and it certainly isn't every day that I read the 900 page "middle part". It took some getting used to. Fortunately, Stephenson has a knack for piling on the words without it getting tedious. At least in my opinion.
One of the toughest things about The Baroque Cycle is explaining it to people, especially to people not familiar with its author. In a fit of laziness, I originally explained to my wife (evalowrain) that it was a science fiction book. Then later I said something about it being set around the turn of the 18th Century, and she reminded me that I had said it was SF. Well, it's about science, but it's fiction. The science is just 300 years old. It's historicial fiction, to be sure, but with the added dimension that it focuses on a) the transformation from alchemy to science and b) the origins of the modern monetary system. And then there are pirates and romances and intrigues and I am leaving out so much. How do you wrap that up in a quick answer to "What are you reading right now?" Is there even a genre that encompasses all the Crapp that NS throws into his books? Those who've read him know exactly what one means when one says, "It is a Neal Stephenson novel." They know it is long, is packed full of wildly divergent bits of trivia, and contains at least three distinct storylines whose relationship is tenuous at best and only resolved in the last dozen or so pages. Sort of.
Anyway, I am 100 pages into System of the World, which means I am nearly at the 2,000 page mark of the Baroque Cycle. Strangely enough I am not tired. I am still very much into it, and look forward to the next chapter with enthusiasm.
Thanks to dallasjay once again for sharing the book.
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The Confusion (The Baroque Cycle, Vol. 2)
