Journal Entry 1 by JohnSteed from Bad Zurzach, Aargau Switzerland on Thursday, October 06, 2005

Amazon.com :

A quiet, unassuming postman develops an unexpected obsession in this quiet, unassuming--and very English--first novel from Michael Palin of Monty Python fame. Martin Sproale is the very model of a modern Walter Mitty. An assistant postmaster in the coastal town of Threston, he lives at home with his mother and rides his bicycle to work each day. It's a pleasant but uneventful sort of life, marked only by Martin's growing fascination with the life, works, and personal style of Ernest Hemingway. "Tea-drinkers, mothers, post office administrators, would-be fiancées. Little people with little minds," Martin thinks. "When would they realise that only through confrontation with danger could life be lived to the full?" Martin has transformed his room into a kind of Hemingway shrine, complete with bullfighting poster, several first editions, the same kind of typewriter Papa used--even a vintage WWI Italian army first-aid cabinet filled with all the liquors he liked to drink.
Two things happen to shatter Martin's equilibrium. First, a new, corporate-style postal manager takes the job that by rights should have been his, promptly beginning a campaign of privatization and modernization that threatens all Martin holds dear. Second, an American woman outbids him on Hemingway memorabilia; a scholar, "not a fan," of the writer, Ruth Kohler lives in seclusion nearby while she works on a book about the women in Hemingway's life. Martin and Ruth engage in some increasingly heated role-playing as the conflict over Threston's post office comes to a slow boil. Deprived of his position, his cozy world crashing down around him, Martin finds himself acting more like the he-man writer than he ever thought possible. Palin's debut is in some ways a surprise: poignant rather than funny, skillfully paced and couched in workmanlike but hardly spectacular prose. Readers expecting Pythonesque absurdity might find themselves disappointed--but only at first; with patience, this book unfolds its more subtle pleasures with understated aplomb.

read by the author (cover looks different though)
 

Journal Entry 2 by JohnSteed from Bad Zurzach, Aargau Switzerland on Thursday, October 06, 2005

consists of 2 cassettes - running time approx. 3 hours

great fun - not just for Monty fans ;)

I wonder who's sitting on the movie rights. It certainly is material for the big screen. 

Journal Entry 3 by JohnSteed from Bad Zurzach, Aargau Switzerland on Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Have decided to start an AudioRay 

Journal Entry 4 by JohnSteed from Bad Zurzach, Aargau Switzerland on Saturday, November 12, 2005

applicants: wasserseele,barnhelm,bluodzibluoda,diotallevi,sister-act,sintra

will check with wasserseele first if she likes to digitalize it 

Journal Entry 5 by JohnSteed from Bad Zurzach, Aargau Switzerland on Sunday, November 13, 2005

the way of the ray:

1. Wasserseele hahnstätten, rheinland-pfalz, germany
2. Bluodzibluoda essen, nordrhein-westfalen, germany
3. barnhelm fulda, hessen, germany
4. Diotallevi duisburg, nordrhein-westfalen, germany
5. sister-act berlin, berlin, germany
6. sintra bonn, germany
7. you ?
 

Journal Entry 6 by JohnSteed at BookRay in controlled release, .---controlled release---. Switzerland on Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Released 6 yrs ago (11/15/2005 UTC) at BookRay in controlled release, .---controlled release---. Switzerland

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

RELEASE NOTES:

>>>>>>>>>>>>> Wasserseele 

Journal Entry 7 by Wasserseele from Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz Germany on Thursday, November 17, 2005

Hemingway's Chair was delivered today, and I am going to sit down on it for some days.

Thanks a lot, JohnSteed! 

Journal Entry 8 by Wasserseele from Mainz, Rheinland-Pfalz Germany on Monday, November 28, 2005

MCs and CDs are on their way to Bluodzibluoda now. Enjoy! 

Journal Entry 9 by Bluodzibluoda from Essen, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on Wednesday, November 30, 2005

... and arrived today. Thanks, Wasserseele! 

Journal Entry 10 by Diotallevi from Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg Germany on Thursday, October 25, 2007

Juhuuuu!

HaZweiOs Backup-CD ist angekommen und wird mich jetzt erfreuen :-)
Ich habe die Buchvorlage vor ein paar Jahren mit großem Vergnügen gelesen und bin gespannt auf die Umsetzung...


 

Journal Entry 11 by Diotallevi from Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg Germany on Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Years ago, I read the printed version of "Hemingway's Chair". It pleased me so much I had to register it as PC.
Here is what I wrote about it:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2382880

Now the audio book version: I liked Michael Palin very much reading his hommage to "Around the World in 80 Days", and with this one, I was impressed again. He simply cannot hide his being that Monty Python veteran, able to characterize his protagonists amiably but clearly with just a few significant phrases :-)

Strangely, I had a slightly different impression of the two versions of this tragicomic novel. Back then, I read the book as a comic novel, but the audio version seemed to have a more tragicomic tendency ;-)

Tomorrow, the CD will travel on to sintra...

further-way-of-the-ray-so-far:

4. Diotallevi bonn, nordrhein-westfalen, germany
3. sintra bonn, germany
5. barnhelm fulda, hessen, germany ???
6. sister-act berlin, berlin, germany
7. you ? 

Journal Entry 12 by sintra from Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on Thursday, January 31, 2008

Just got the audiobook from Dio. Thanks a lot!

Edit, 17.3.: Just a quick update: Due to lack of time I've slightly neglected my audiobooks lately but I'm listening to this one now. It will probably travel on after the Easter holidays. 

Journal Entry 13 by sintra from Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on Thursday, March 27, 2008

A very entertaining, bittersweet novel. I always enjoy Michael Palin reading and this audiobook is no exception.

Thank you for this audioring! The CD will soon continue its journey. 

Journal Entry 14 by barnhelm from Fulda, Hessen Germany on Wednesday, May 28, 2008

AUWEIA - ENTSCHULDIGUNG! Ich hab solange nicht mehr hier mitgemacht, dass ich erst jetzt beim weiterschicken gemerkt hab, dass ich das Eingangsjournal gar nicht gemacht hab.....sorry! *zerknirscht*
Es ist natürlich fantastisch, das Buch hatte ich ja bereits in englisch UND in deutsch gelesen...aber es jetzt von IHM himself vorgelesen zu bekommen, ach!
Und wer kriegt das jetzt?