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. Episode 2, the first of five episodes to be written by the public, was launched on Friday 06 March 2009. It sees intrepid Scotswoman Aileen and her dog Watson travelling to Iowa City in search of a stolen book and a secret society of bibliophiles. Right now we're putting the finishing touches on episode 3, which will be launched on Thursday, 09 April 2009 - watch the story so far.

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.

The Earth Hums in B Flat is Mari Strachan's first novel. It's a detective novel set in 1950s Wales featuring young Gwenni Morgan - who is fond of strawberry whip, detective stories and difficult questions. She's good at finding clues, but rarely understands what she knows. The story is told from Gwenni's point of view so the reader both shares her incomprehension when faced with the adult world and can piece together the secrets that Gwenni cannot.

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

There are reading questions available on Mari Strachan's website: http://bit.ly/ghhLB

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

This was left on one of the window niche tables. I spotted that a staff member gathered it up almost immediately, along with another book left on a table. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it was collected to be read, rather than to be put in the bin as rubbish.

If you've found this book - welcome to BookCrossing! I hope you enjoy The Earth Hums... and then pass it on to continue its journey. It'd be great to find out where it has travelled to and read your review. You can stay completely anonymous if you prefer, or you can join BookCrossing (it's free) if you'd like to take part in this booklovers' community.

To find out more about the adventure of The Lost Book, go to the website at www.thelostbook.net and to read more about The Lost World and the reading campaign check out www.lostworldread.com.

The book came to me from RISI book swapping site and I am currently enjoying it very much. I will put it back onto the book swap site and who knows where it will end up next? Whoever gets it - you're in for a treat.