As If

by Blake Morrison | Nonfiction |
ISBN: 1862070458 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Phoenix-Flight on 6/22/2009
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This book is in the wild! This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Phoenix-Flight on Monday, June 22, 2009
Registered to promote bookcrossing.

Geregistreerd ter promotie van BookCrossing.

Journal Entry 2 by Phoenix-Flight at Strandpaviljoen Zoomers in Castricum, Noord-Holland Netherlands on Saturday, August 27, 2011

Released 12 yrs ago (9/4/2011 UTC) at Strandpaviljoen Zoomers in Castricum, Noord-Holland Netherlands

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Hallo lezer, welkom op Bookcrossing!
Gefeliciteerd met je vondst van dit boek! Wat leuk dat je hier komt kijken.

Ik wens je veel plezier hier, en met je boek! Het zou leuk zijn als je laat weten waar je het boek gevonden hebt, wat je ervan vond, en wat je er later mee gaat doen.

Er is ook een Nederlandstalig forum waar je terecht kan met al je bookcross-vragen en om jezelf voor te stellen Kijk, hier!
Voor meer informatie over bookcrossing, labels en vaste release locaties (OBCZ) is er een Nederlandse website Kijk, daar!

Als je besluit lid te worden, zou ik het erg leuk vinden als je mijn naam (Phoenix-Flight) zou willen vermelden onder het kopje 'referring member', dat kom je tegen in het aanmeld-proces. Daar krijg ik niets bijzonders voor, maar is leuk voor mijn statistieken! Het is niet verplicht, maar wel leuk voor mij.

Veel plezier met lezen en loslaten!

* * * * *


Hello reader, and welcome to BookCrossing!
Congratulations on finding this book! How wonderful that you've come by the site to have a look!

I hope you'll have much fun here on the website and with the book. It would be nice if you could make a journal entry here and let the previous readers know where you've found the book, how you liked it and what your future plans are with it.

For more information, read the FAQs or ask your questions on the forums.

Should you decide to sign up for an account on the website, I would appreciate it if you mention my username (Phoenix-Flight) as 'referring member'. There's no reward involved for me, other than my statistics changing, but that's enough for me anyway :) It is not a requirement however! Should you want to do this, you can do so while signing up or later when editing your profile.

Have fun reading and releasing!

Journal Entry 3 by bookguide at Wijchen, Gelderland Netherlands on Monday, September 5, 2011
You know I said I wasn't allowed to take any books home with me? Yeah, yeah, yeah. How do you expect me to resist if you bring such fascinating books to the meeting, and then nobody else takes the bait? I did wait until the very end of the meeting, but it was still there, so...

Journal Entry 4 by bookguide at Wijchen, Gelderland Netherlands on Saturday, October 29, 2011
I think that the Jamie Bulger case still holds a morbid fascination for most people who lived in the UK at the time of his disappearance, the discovery of his body and the subsequent trial of Robert Thompson and Jon Venables. The whole country shared in the fear at the reports of the disappearance of such a young child, the hope when the CCTV footage of James being led away by two other children was revealed, and the horror and incredulity when it emerged that they had brutally killed him. I hadn't followed every detail of the court case, so the book told me some details that I hadn't been aware of, but in a completely unsensational manner. Blake Morrison was present at the trial of Thompson and Venables, and considers them as victims of their circumstances and the legal system. In fact, he lays himself open to criticism with his descriptions of incidents in his own childhood and youth which could have been misconstrued and lead to conviction if they had not been such a common experience at the time, and undoubtedly since; one person's drunken teenage party exploits could be another's traumatic experience of rape. Likewise, children seem to have an inborn cruelty and a natural curiosity about death. Taken to extremes, this can lead to crimes such as those committed by Bulger's murderers. Poignant and thoughtful, Blake Morrison wonders if the crime was a result of an over-active imaginative game of make-believe (As If), or if it should be viewed as taking the alternative meaning of the phrase 'As If'; "yeah, right, believe that if you want!"

This book is fascinating and balanced and beautifully written, without dwelling too much on the gruesome details; this is no forensic murder mystery. It was written before the more recent conviction of Venables as a paedophile. How could the two perpetrators ever have grown up to be normal boys after such a crime? How could they have been subjected to the ordeal of listening to their previously-recorded testimonies in court, in front of the assembled press and their victim's extended family? How could they have done what they did, been sentenced to spend the rest of their childhoods in prison, separated from their families and normal life, and ever have returned to the normal world? Were they intrinsically evil, or was this one, isolated incident? As if!

Journal Entry 5 by bookguide at Dublin Convention 2012 in Dublin, Co. Dublin Ireland on Thursday, April 12, 2012

Released 11 yrs ago (4/13/2012 UTC) at Dublin Convention 2012 in Dublin, Co. Dublin Ireland

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

For the book buffet.

This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme
- Reduce Mount TBR (To Be Read) - read and release books on the TBR list since before the end of 2011. My reading goal is 75 books.
- Pages Read Challenge - read a self-set target number of pages in 2012. My goal is 26,000.

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