'After the tragic sinking of a cargo ship, one solitary lifeboat remains bobbing on the wild, blue Pacific. The only survivors from the wreck are a sixteen-year-old boy named Pi, a hyena, a zebra (with a broken leg), a female orang-utan... and a 450-pound Royal Bengal tiger.'


I found the first third of this book quite boring and was wondering why it had so much success, but then came the other two thirds... and I now know why this is a book that everyone should read! It is a wonderful story written in a light yet interesting way. I enjoyed this book immensely and will definitely re-read it at some point!

I am offering to send this book as an international ring. The participants are:

1- hakkalina (Hungary - intl)
2- spy-there (Switzerland - Switzerland / Europe)
3- ArwenG (Portugal - Europe)
4- MarcThomas (France - Europe)
5- Hayes13 (Italy - intl)

6- Parisfrance312 (USA - USA)
7- ayntastic (USA - USA)
8- Bkind2books (USA - USA)

9- Crossing-Guard (Canada - Canada/USA)
10- amidabutsu (Canada - intl)

11- KrazyKangaroo (Australia - Australia)
12 - Elddau1 (Australia - Australia)
13- violetcrumble (Australia - intl)
...

then back to me!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

finally on its way to Hungary!

Arrived safely today. I love the stamps on the envelope. In Hungary in the post office try to save time by using uniform stamp. If I want an illustrated stamp I have to ask them "please with ordinary stamps". How beautiful stamps are there...

Ohh, I like your book sticker very much.
It is a good idea as you did!! :-)

Thanks to you in order to share this book with me, with us.

Update: 2009.05.13.
I can hardly make any progress in it lately. It is too philosophical, I should have "think", but I only want to read. So it is not the fault of the book, rather My Mood is not suitable for reading it - now. Instead of forcing to read .. rather send it on.

Updtae: 2009.05.22.
Sorry I forgot to post it, and now I am ill, but at the end of the next week I will try to mail it. Thanks your patient.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sorry about the delay.
It goes by airmail to Switzerland.

Arrived today safe and sound; thank you hakkalina!
Do you like stamps? In Switzerland we can make our own stamps if we want (chose a pre-payment, add any picture and print it out). Maybe I should create some BC stamps ... But first I'll have to use the many stickers which hakkalina sent along with the book ^__^

Gosh – what a horrible novel! That is, what horrible, cruel deaths of countless animals it does contain. Sometimes I hardly could find the guts to read on. A story which lets you believe in God? In the contrary! you forfeit whatever faith you had - washed away by gushing blood and lastly eaten by meerkats.

If a mammal loses one leg, the femoral artery is severed and the blood will flow out with every heart beat. Rather quickly if nothing is done to stop it. A big zebra, which has around 30l blood, would be dead within minutes - and would not endure another 30 hours, as Martel wants us to believe. What else can I do except suspect him of pure sadism? Also: to compel a vegetarian to slaughter animals is such an evil idea!

Basically the story wouldn’t be bad. The first part is cheeky and funny. Martel’s descriptions of zoo-life and the hierarchic systems of the animals are accurate and interesting. He says weighty things as «The hunting of whales is a heinous crime» or «... the most dangerous animal in a zoo is Man». He points at sore points, e.g. the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (when Pi drifts into the floating waste).
But then suddenly he strains facts into boastful fiction and wild fantasy. Which rather bewildered me. Two cast aways go blind at the same time and encounter inmidst the pacific? And coincidentally the trachoma befalls also the tiger?? Chlamidia trachomatis is a HUMAN pathogen ... I didn’t get the joke. I also wondered why Pi – who is still frightened to share a boat with Richard Parker - lets the cook’s boat swim away. Pathetic. But what really knocked the last sense out of my wits was the flesh eating island ... :rolleyes:

Besides: why for heavens sake had Martel to drag religion into the story? Because God sells? It’s a nice picture when Pi practises three religions alike, but it has not much to do with the yarn in the second part.
Perhaps this novel is just a sly assemblage? A bit of religion, a splash of slaughterhouse, some fantasy, a little taboo breaking here, a bit of exaggeration yonder – it must be a mere cry for attention. Or is Martel really thus perverted? In the internet I found his story «We Ate the Children Last», where he describes garbage eating and cannibalism. Oh, honestly! But after the zebra’s agony there is nothing really shocking anymore.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

oops - I have forgotten to release the book. It's drifting towards Paris and probably will arrive this week.

August, 25th:
It seems that the book got lost within the European postal system. I'm very sorry about that ;_; and will try to find another copy of the book. Though it could take some time ...

September, 25th:
Life of Pi is back! It seems that MarcThomas hasn't picked it from the post office (after an attempt in vain to deliver) and they returned it to the sender. I dispatched it now to ArwenG. Geeze, this book cost a fortune already ...

Received today! Thanks spy-there and teuffi!

I've finished the book. I don't really know what to make of it, but I don't get what all the fuss was about this book being great. Maybe I didn't understand it as a fable?? How do you read this as a fable? Is the tiger supposed to represent God? I really did not get it. The first part of the book is supremely boring, but I got through it, the second part is all about this boy being adrift at sea on a lifeboat with a wild tiger as company...and then the ridiculous part about the mysterious island he encounters..

anyway thanks Teuffi for sharing. I have contacted Marc Thomas, next on the list, am awaiting his reply.

sent to marc thomas today. Enjoy!

Got it in the mail today. Thanks teuffi for organising the ring and thanks ArwenG for sending the book from Portugal to France. I've got a few ring books to read beforehand but I'll go on with this one as soon as possible.

Started reading on Friday. I'm almost halfway through the book by now and quite enjoying it.

As a few of you said before, the first part of the book tends to get boring at times but I believe it's interesting to settle the story with so many anecdotes and scientific facts. Once I reached the second I grew really fond of the book and I liked it until the end. A very enjoyable read.

PMing Hayes13 so the ring goes on.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Hayes13 requested to be skipped so the book goes straight to Parisfrance312 in the US.

Happy reading!

I recieved this book today! I am very excited about reading it! It has always been one that I have wanted to read, but never had the chance. Thank you so much for including me in this BookRing!

Sorry if I have had this book over the amount of time that I should have. Due to the holidays and not being near a computer, I wasn't able to announce that I needed it a little longer. I will be passing this book on hopefully in the next few days.

Wonderful book! I am a teacher and was told by many of my English-teacher friends that I would either love or hate this book. I loved it! What a wonderful story. I thought that the situation that Pi was in is something that all of us can identify with....stuggle, lonliness, having to work with someone (on in Pi's case, something) that we don't really want to.....I really enjoyed the whole book.
Thank you so much for including me into this book ring!

-ParisFrance-

I will be sending this book out today! Just wanted to let y'all know!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I put this in the mail today! Moving on to the next person! Great book. I am so glad that I was able to be apart of this bookring! Thank you so much for allowing me to participate!

Welcome to Book Crossing! If you are reading this, then you have caught one of my books. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I did. Please register the book and tell me what you thought about it. When you are done reading it, please release it again and we will see where it goes. If you decide to join BookCrossing, please put my name, ParisFrance312, in as your referring member.

Have Fun!

Tuesday, Jan 12th
Received this one in the mail today - looking forward to enjoying it and passing it along!

Tuesday, Jan 19th
This is one of the best books I have read in quite a while. I truly enjoyed it from beginning to end - I found it to be thought provoking, heart breaking, and poignant. True, it's not a feel good story with a happy ending - but I didn't feel like this detracted from the plot at all. I found myself becoming attached to all the characters, man and beast alike. Martel weaves an unbelievably complex and readable novel. In answer to the questions posed by SpyThere -

SPOILER ALERT


it's important to remember that this story is an allegory. Many of the plot twists that you found to be unbelievable were meant to be unbelievable because they happened only in Pi's mind. This is revealed during the interview with the Japanese businessmen during the last 15 pages of the book. All of the "animals" were in fact human survivors of the shipwreck. Pi went blind at the same time as Richard Parker because he WAS Richard Parker. This key plot device reveals the fanciful details of Pi's journey for what they really are: the dehydrated and sunstroke addled hallucinations of a 15 year old trauma victim.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sending this one off to Bkind2books - happy travels!

Arrived today - will push it to the top of my TBR pile. Thanks for organizing this ring, teuffi!

I enjoyed this book overall, although some parts did drag a little for me. Parts of this were hard to read and unnecessarily brutal, yet overall I found it uplifting.

Quotes to remember:

"I must say a word about fear. It is life's only true opponent. Only fear can defeat life."

and

"It's important in life to conclude things properly. Only then can you let go. Otherwise you are left with words you should have said but never did, and your heart is heavy with remorse."

Will mail out to next person tomorrow if possible (we're in the midst of 5+ inches of snow - an uncommon event in Tennessee)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Mailed to CrossingGuard

Book arrived safely in Canada. I have another book that I am just finishing up and then I am looking forward to reading this one.

Wow, what an amazing book! I finished it on Friday and at the time I thought I understood the underlying themes of the book but the longer I thought about it the more I discovered. Now I am sure there is something that I am missing. After reading the ending I think I am going to have to get another copy of this book so that I can reread it. Some thoughts that I had on the book are as follows:

Spoilers Ahead...

- 7 months is a very long time to be stranded on a boat. Like Pi I too would have had a huge physical struggle but more so I think it would have been a battle of the mind. Hope can only last so long without doubt pushing it away.

- You can bet that when people rescue you they are going to want to know what happened and explaining that you fished all day everyday for 7 months just isn't going to cut it. What you need is a story... and after working on the plot for 7 months I bet it would be pretty entertaining.

-Pi's father made sure that he was terrified of Tigers (who wouldn't be with the display his father put on) so why not express the desperation of being lost at sea with something that everyone can relate to, the fear of being stuck with a Tiger in very close quarters.

-Pi and the Tiger have very similar schedules (blindness, hunger, boredom) so I tend to agree with ayntastic that maybe they are one and the same.

...

I have contacted the next reader and will try to move this along shortly. Thanks for sharing!

Update: March 16 send another message to the next reader.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful book. I will sent it onto the next person tonight.



Please be kind to the enviroment and try to reuse the envelope.