One from six boxes of books given to me to bookcross in a pub.

Well what can I say about this book? Did I like it? Not sure! Do I think it is a good book? Not sure!
It is an oddity. Not a story in the classic sense although late on in the book one develops, instead seemed to be an essay on how one would feel if one was deposited in a large city a hundred years ago. Certainly well researched, I can't help feeling that the authour let his interest and passion in the subject get in the way of his story telling. pags and pages of factual detail describing streets as they were left me at times thirsty for some plot.

However, that being said the author can write and whilst don't think I would re-read this book, I won't shy away from him if I see his name acing the cove of another novel.

RELEASE NOTES:

Off it flies to the UK.

Kindly sent to me by marko167 - thanks very much!

Well...i didn't like it! Started off promisingly and then just faded away for me with characters I neither liked nor a plot I was particularly interested in. I got about three quarters of the way then gave up (and I pretty much always finish books).

Hopefully someone will like it more than me which is why its off on a book ray! This list is made up of the people who were on the Invasion of the Body Snatchers Ring (also by Jack Finney) organised by AlterEgoZoe

Some brief "rules"
* Journal the book when you receive it.
* PM the next person on the list for their address when you receive it so as to try to avoid hold-ups later on.
* If you don't hear from the next participant within a few days, PM them again. If after a few more days you still haven't heard from them, PM me to let me know, and move on to the next person on the list.
* Read (and hopefully enjoy!) Don't feel pressurised to read it in a rush (and life gets in the way sometimes!) but if you need to keep hold of the book for longer than say a couple of months, please journal to let us know.
* Journal again when you've read it to let us know what you think of it.
* The person at the end of the ray gets to decide what to do with the book.

Participants (new joiners will be added to the end of the list):
1) abrokenstarr
2) kizmiaz
3) Martin1960 <---------here!
5) iamagirldork
6) caligula03
7) tish2002
8) gomboggit
9) RockDg9
10) fairydustwings

Off to abrokenstarr first!

Arrived a couple of days ago. Thankyou. Will try to get to it as quickly as possible, am a little snowed under at the moment.

I'm sorry it has taken me so long. Buying a house and then moving, finishing a job and getting ready for a new one has taken its toll on my reading time. I have Kizmiaz's address, so I will get this sent on soon.

Another book that didn't really grab me. There were some interesting ideas about time travel in here, but I'm not sure that it hasn't already been done. Obviously, this was written some time ago and was probably fairly new when it was written. Simon Morley is brought into a government programme that wishes to send him back in time to the 1880's. There are some fairly predictable elements to this and a couple of characters that suddenly lose their importance, which is rather odd. Ends off with some interesting political comments. Overall, not terrible but not amazing.

Posted on Thursday.

Just got it, will get to it soon although I still have a couple to go before that.

This was a nice surprise. I wasn’t really expecting much from a time travelling plot; it seems that everything’s been done (and overdone) in this particular area of sci-fi. But this book really grabbed my interest from early on.
What compelled me to keep reading it was not the story per se but the rich description of New York and its ways in the 1880’s, I just kept mentally comparing it to the New York of present days, and after that I just couldn’t stop I had to know what was the statue of liberty’s arm doing in Madison Square Garden, why was lower Broadway so noisy and on and on.
The plot that moves the story along is not bad but not that impressive either and it starts developing late in the book but as I said it’s not the most important thing in the book and it does help bring out some beautiful elements of that growing city in the 1880’s.
This book probably works best for New Yorkers and people who’ve visited the Big Apple, since it gives them something to compare with.
The fact that it’s illustrated really makes it more interesting, just seeing Fifth Avenue as a nice quiet street of brownstone buildings is quite a shock but seeing the Dakota building all alone next to cultivated fields and animal farms is mind blowing. I love this building by the way and to see it featured so prominently on the story is really nice, did you know that John Lennon was shot in front of this building? That’s where he lived at the time; the guy had good taste in houses, if not in women.
Thanks geetheflea for asking me in on this one.
Sent to the UK today (04.09.2007)

Received today from kizmiaz, thank you. It's next on mylist to be read.

Don't really have anything to add to the comments already made I'm afraid. Have PM'd AlterEgoZoe to get address and move it on.

I have contacted AlterEgoZoe who at the moment does not have time for this bookring so have pm'd iamagirldork so this book can be passed on.