Journal Entry 1 by Miss-Owl from Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai Thailand on Saturday, January 07, 2006

Have wonderful memories associated with this book about ten years ago when going through my Merchant-Ivory stage. :)

Found this spare copy during a massive tidy-up, plan to release it sometime. 

Journal Entry 2 by Miss-Owl from Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai Thailand on Sunday, August 06, 2006

Won by BellaMack in a rabck competition to celebrate the gift of wings from ajsmom.

(Wow, now there's a sentence only a bookcrosser could understand!) 

Journal Entry 3 by BellaMack from St Helens, Tasmania Australia on Thursday, August 10, 2006

Received today, thank you so much Miss-Owl :) Will journal when read. 

Journal Entry 4 by tqd from Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Thanks very much, BellaMack, the book turned up today! A lovely surprise on a wet and grey and windy[*] autumn day in Sydney, I thought this book might have hit the black hole that seems to be eating bookcrossing books attempting to get into my mailbox at home. But no, it got sent to me at work! Hurrah!

* Although the day wasn't too bad, I got to do fire warden training this morning and the lovely pyromaniac fireman who ran the session gave us a nice roaring petrol fire to try out the fire extinguishers and fire blankets on. Mmm, I think my coat still smells of petrol fumes. 

Journal Entry 5 by tqd at Sydney, New South Wales Australia on Sunday, August 29, 2010

I started Howards End with some trepidation because because the last book of Forster's that I read, A Passage to India, left me dissatisfied and positively grumpy. However, by the time I'd finished the first few pages I already knew I was going to simply love it.

To start off with, I completely fell in love with the Schlegel family, from Meg's sensibility to Helen's extreme emotionality, and with young silly Tibby being a wonderfully young silly highly intelligent adolescent. Forster captured family dynamics wonderfully with these three siblings and their interactions.

While reading, I found it quite astounding the number of times I thought "yes!" at various phrases. I loved Meg's "I used an affected word" because I use affected words all the time. I also loved Helen's comment that her younger brother "starts a new mortal disease every month". Aunt Juley discussed how a friend of hers can go around an art gallery and talk about how each painting affects her emotionally, while she can't. And that while she likes music, she doesn't consider herself musical.

A slightly muted "yes!" to that incident though, because I don't think Aunt Juley is quite someone I want to aspire to.

It's also one of those books where it's written in and of a particular moment in time that is crystallised. In this case, England prior to WW1 (published in 1910, I believe). In addition, because it concerns an English family, who are also half-German. I couldn't help but feel slightly depressed about the immediate future of the young men in the book. Had a similar "oh no" feeling when I realised A.S. Byatt's The Children's Book was going to cover WW1...

Overall I thought this was a marvellous read - the clash between old and modern, bohemia and stultifying class structures, and (I feel old-fashioned for mentioning it), men and women. But I never felt that any of the characters were type-cast into one particular mold (well, maybe Charles Wilcox, the idiotic son). The writing was lovely (so many passages I wanted to re-read and underline! not that I write in books, but I *wanted* to). And, also by virtue of being written and set just prior to WW1 a heightened sense of being a portrait of its time.

Great stuff.

This has been selected from the Oz VBB by jeniwren, so I'll get this in the mail to her asap. 

Journal Entry 6 by tqd at Balmain, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Released 1 yr ago (9/7/2010 UTC) at Balmain, New South Wales Australia

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Popped in the mail to jeniwren at lunch time today.

Happy reading! 

Journal Entry 7 by jeniwren at Greigs Flat, New South Wales Australia on Wednesday, September 08, 2010