Welcome to The Lost Book!

The Lost Book is a collaborative adventure in storytelling. It's taking place online and anyone can join in. At its heart is an animated web series: the adventures of investigative journalist, and BookCrosser, Aileen Adler, who is trying to solve the crime of a missing book. Episode 4, the third of five episodes to be written by the public, was launched last month. It saw Scotswoman Aileen going undercover in New Zealand to listen in on the plans of evil genius Beryl Potts - watch the story so far. Right now we're animating episode 5 (which will be launched on Friday 19 June 2009) and working on the plot for episode 6 with help from all the visitors to the website.

Where the story goes next remains in your hands. You can suggest plot developments by visiting www.thelostbook.net now. Each month between now and July the storylines will be pulled together into the next episode, animated and published online.

There are loads of ways you can get involved and it won't cost you anything. Please help us to write the story for the web series - make suggestions or vote on other people's ideas. You can also join our special guest writer Jasper Fforde and reconstruct a stolen book in our weekly microstory competition. You can enter our soundtrack competition by creating your own music for the web series. You can even produce your own animation.

And, you can read this book, tell us what you thought of it, give it away, and follow its journey.

The Lost Book is a partner project to the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust's 2009 reading campaign, The Lost World Read 2009, which is using free books, online resources and events to get people reading The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. The Lost World Read is the largest collaborative reading project ever seen in the UK. We're extending the reading campaign, thanks to the generosity of project sponsors Canongate, by giving away other free books throughout The Lost Book.

Life of Pi is that rare thing - a bestselling modern classic. It's a story about a boy, a boat, and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger. This is a brand new special edition (publication date 02 Jul 2009) for the worldwide Life Of Pi readalong that will be taking place in August 2009. To join in, sign up at www.lifeofpi.co.uk - and you'll receive regular tips and added extras to help you make the most of Life of Pi.

So join in, wherever you are, and have fun!

This book is going on a mini-bookray in the USA. The idea is that everyone will have the chance to read it during August (or soon after!) so can take part in the global readalong - sign up at www.lifeofpi.co.uk.

Participants:
kerbam1421
mysticalzoe
allthesepieces

Please try to read the book as quickly as possible and pass it on using a fast method of shipping. Many thanks!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Travelling to kerbam1421 to start this mini-bookray. Happy reading, everyone!

Received this in the mail yesterday, 7/13/09 - Thanks so much for sending my way!

I have 2 and a half book ring books in front of this, but I should be able to start this before August. I'll let you know when I start it! Thanks again!

UPDATE: I started this book last night, 7/26/09.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I am so sorry to say that I just could not get into this book. I only got to page 64 before giving up. I really hated not being able to get into it - I felt like I kept re-reading pages over and over. I didn't want to keep it any longer, so it's being sent off to the next in line. Thank you for including me, but I'm sorry I wasn't able to fully participate.

DC# 420043459102150194711766345936

Received today, thanks for sharing!! I also have one other book that I am really into started already and hopefully will be done with it this week. Then I will start on this one!

8-04-09 starting this book tomorrow, sorry it took me a few days to get to it.

8-05-09 I went to Goodwill today and found a copy of Life of Pi, so I have decided to send this book along, as this way I can take my time and read the book. I will PM next in line.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I forgot to journal when I sent this out, this morning, I appologize. So it's on it's way to allthepieces in PA. Enjoy!

Too cool! I've been looking forward to reading this book for what seems like such a long time. Every time I was about to purchase a copy, something came up and I wasn't able to, and it's been checked out of the library for ages. Now that I finally have the opportunity to read it, I'm excited to get started. I've got some tea brewing as I'm typing this. Thanks so much for including me in this bookray!

(For the record, I'm cheering for the hyena. Let's see where this one goes.)

I finished reading the book last night, and I don't think I slept very well afterward. I haven't enjoyed a book this much since I read Herbert Selby Jr.'s Requiem for a Dream about three years ago. So few books are this real and unbelievable. There were sections so gruesome, I thought I'd be sick, and passages that were so stunning and bewildering, they brought me to tears.

A while before I got this book, I'd read something that I thought would have ruined it for me. What I thought were spoilers, however, weren't anything of the sort. The final part of this story is so incredibly important to how the reader perceives the events that took place, and the questions it raises lend an even greater depth to Pi's character. Just what if...?

About fifty pages into the book, I picked out a quote that resonated powerfully with me and posted it on Readernaut and my blog. I would've taken the time to expound upon my thoughts, but I was too absorbed by the book to do anything but keep reading. Surprisingly, it turned out that the quote I'd selected was the main idea of the entire story. Needless to say, then, this book has affected me on a personal level. Having barely survived deeply traumatic experiences, (though of an entirely different nature), I feel I'm able to relate not so much to Pi as to what I think his motives were for doing what he had to do. The story hasn't affected my religious beliefs at all. (Apologies to the many people who were claiming it would.) But it has helped me come to an understanding about things from my past, and in that way, it has changed me.

There are some points I'd like to discuss, especially regarding the religious aspects of the story and how I feel that some reviewers (not here) might have been missing the forest for the trees when they read into these concepts. I don't think I can get into a discussion like that here without spoiling the story for people who haven't read it yet, but I will say that I have a profound appreciation for the chapters in which Pi contrasted atheism with agnosticism.

The only thing I didn't like about the book was when, after everything was brought to light, two of the characters had a discussion in which one said to the other, "Did you notice how X connects to Y?" and the other replied, "Yes, and A resembles Z!" as though it needed to be spelled out plainly to be understood. It felt very contrived, almost condescending, and it angered me a bit to have that conversation pasted sloppily at the end of such an amazing story.

Still, I'm giving it ten stars, which is something I rarely do. I'm deeply grateful for the chance to have read this book. I'm hoping to a buy a copy for my permanent collection soon.

Meanwhile, I'm going to see about passing this along to a friend. Thank you again for including me in this bookray.

My best friend hasn't read this yet, and I think she'll really enjoy it. I'm going to mail it to her at the end of the month.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sorry about the delay. The book is on its way!

EDIT (12/26/09): My friend contacted me and asked me to let everyone know that she received the book but doesn't currently have an internet connection with which to access the site to make an entry. She's already read it and plans to pass it along to her significant other.

I hope she'll get her connection back soon! I'm sure she has at least a few interesting thoughts about this book to share with us all.