Dear Reader

Welcome to BookCrossing and thanks for being a part of World Book Night 2011, the largest book giveaway in history. 1,000,000 specially printed copies of 25 different books changed hands on March 5th 2011 and began their journey from reader to reader. This book is one of them. World Book Night has joined with BookCrossing to help track these books as they travel. You can be a part of that journey by making a comment in the book's journal here on BookCrossing. Your journal entry can say how you got the book, what you thought of it, your plans for it or whatever else you might like to add.

On BookCrossing you may choose to remain anonymous or join (it's free). If you join, you’ll be alerted by e-mail each time someone makes another journal entry for this specific copy of this book (other copies of the book are travelling with their own ID number. Every copy of every book has a unique ID). It’s all confidential (you’re known only by your screen name and no one is ever given your e-mail address) and spam-free.

Thanks in advance for being part of World Book Night and BookCrossing. And happy reading and sharing.

This book is being released via BookCrossing on 5 March 2011 as part of the inaugural World Book Night. With the full support of the Publishers Association, the Booksellers Association, the Independent Publishers Guild, the Reading Agency with libraries, World Book Day and the BBC, one million books will be given away by an army of passionate readers to members of the public across the UK and Ireland.

Read and release!

Picked up from the World Book Night event in Colchester.

Given to BookAmbler during meet up at the Layer Fox so that it can be passed on to Chamonix44.

Whilst on a holiday in England recently, I collected a box of World Book Night Books from BookAmbler, which Ardachy had picked up for me. This was one of them. Thank you Ardachy! I am gradually getting around to journalling all the books I came home with. Sorry I'm so slow, but I have had pains in my hand and arm every day. I call it "mouse" hand, but I guess it's RSI.
I am very pleased to have a chance to read this book, and to be a part of its reading history. I intend to lend it out to friends after I have read it myself!

Amazon Editorial Review:
This love story, translated from the Spanish, tells the story of Florentino Ariza who has loved Fermina Daza for 50 years. When her husband dies, his chance for happiness comes.

Phew!!! I have finished this book at last! It only has 348 pages, yet it took me EIGHT LONG days to get through it! Mind you the typeface is smaller than most. The paragraphs are longer, and sometimes non-existent. The chapters are about 100 pages long!! Normally I get through them much quicker than this, but this novel was so hard for me to read.
I found it really hard going. It never actually drew me into the story at all. I dont know whether this is because it is a translation, or because it is old-fashioned, or because it is from a different culture, but I thought it just went on and on without much progression.

OK, I know it is a very famous novel, by a very famous author, and I have read lots of reviews that say this novel is wonderful. Perhaps it is just me. "One man's meat....." etc.

Anyway, what awful lives the main characters lived. It seems that it was all sadness.
Thank goodness Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza got together in the end, but what a disappointing ending!!

Oh well, I really hope that the next reader will see more in this novel than I did and get more out of it. I can't wait to start reading another WBN book!
It feels like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders to have finished this one. I have never let a book beat me yet, but this one nearly did! At least I did read it and I tried to get something out of it!!

Having said all those negative things, I must say that I am very glad to have actually read this novel at long last, and even happier that it was a WBN copy that I read, so that I can be part of its reading history. Now I'm hoping I will be able to lend this out among my friends in church and in the Ladies' club that I belong to.
By the way, the photo of the white rose, above, has a significance, but you must read the story to find out why!

After our church service today, I lent this book out to a member of our church congregation, familywoman , from Rijssen!

I hope you will find it easier to read than I did, familywoman! It's a good story, but I just found it drawn-out and hard going, but luckily we are not all the same!

Ik heb het boek niet gelezen. Niet omdat ik het niet mooi vond, maar gewoon omdat ik er geen tijd voor had. Iemand anders uit de kerk wilde het boek graag lezen, daarom heb ik het boek terug gegeven aan Nicole.

familywoman returned this book to me. She started reading it, but at the moment she is busy with something else, and she will read this book another time.

familywoman's journal entry in Dutch translates to something like this:
I have not read the book. Not because I did not like it, but just because I do not have (enough) time for it. Someone else from the church would like to read the book, so
I have returned the book to Nicole.

We were at the annual (church) Castle Fair today and I handed this book to Janice, who will be the next reader.

I received this book from Nicole last weekend at the Castle Fair. As I was in the middle of "The Book Thief" at the time, I couldn't start straightaway, but now I've read the opening pages and I'm hooked! Hope it lives up to expectations ... although I can see that that's not always the case. Janice.

This is a book I had long been keen to read and, although it was not quite what I had expected, it soon caught my imagination. But how could such a romance, rolling out over the decades, sustain a reader’s interest? Well, it did, which shows the amazing power of the writing, the insight into the workings of the human mind, and the curiosity it aroused about an unfamiliar country and unfamiliar culture – I even dug out my atlas to check out the locations. On the other hand, I could not identify closely with the protagonists – although more so with Fermina than Florentino, but that is only natural. It was certainly interesting to witness how they adjusted to the twists and turns of life over years, and particularly the frailties of increasing age of both themselves and those around them. I use the word “witness” because I felt very much an onlooker, not really touched by their plight until the final part of the book. And then Florentino’s reaction to the death of his ward saw much of my sympathy evaporate. I’m glad that they finally found happiness together, I’m glad that I read the book, but it’s time to move on – and maybe see now how it translates to the big screen.

Janice returned this book to me. It is now in my WBN book box, and I will try to find another reader for it.

I'm having a get-together with expat friends,and lots of them want to read the WBN books This book is going to Belgium with Susan. I will stand over her soon and make her write a journal entry, otherwise we might never get one! Since there is a computer here....why not?

Whoops! I'm so busy here in this expat meeting writing JE's that I forgot to make the last JE into a release note! This book is going to Belgium with Susan.

Hmmm I got persuaded to try this book by our Spanish friend, Maria. I will see if I like it.

What a depressing book. I didn't like it very much. I kept on reading it and hoping it would get better. What was supposed to be so great about this author? I don't know! Perhaps the greatness of this literature was lost in translation.
I said all along that I don't want another book to read, but now I'm here at Nicole's my enthusiasm is back. So many people were happy with the books they borrowed, and I was unlucky last time. This time I will be keeping my fingers crossed for a book that I like.
It is great to be here Nicole. Thank you.

Aha......someone else who found this book hard to read! I'm glad that Susan persevered with it though. Today we have a much needed expat group meeting and I'm getting overwhelmed by books coming back to me, and books going out! It's wonderful to be getting so many reviews, even if I have to stand over people to make them do it, lol !!!

I'm glad that Susan remembered to bring the book with her, all the way from Belgium. It is too far for her to go back to get it if she forgot it, haha!

Anyway, I think I will retire the 2011 WBN box for now, as I now have a 2012 WBN book box. I do not have all the 2012 titles, unfortunately, as they are proving so hard to get, but I have enough to satisfy a lot of the expats here today! I am glad this book got read again, and I hope it will find a new reader in the future. Until then.....

Time to move this book on.

Book will be left on top of a petrol pump.

Hallo daar, gelukkige vinder!
Wat leuk dat je op deze pagina bent komen kijken. Als je dit leest, heb je een boek gevonden, zomaar een onverwacht kadootje van mij voor jou... Veel plezier ermee! Hierbij trouwens wat spelregels mbt bookcrossing:

1. Het zou fijn zijn als je meldt dat het veilig bij jou is. Dat mag gewoon in het Nederlands.
2. Daarna kun je het boek gaan lezen en als je wilt nog eens schrijven wat je ervan vond.
3. Mag het boek verder reizen, geef het dan door aan iemand anders, of laat het zomaar ergens weer achter, liefst op een veilige, droge plek. Je kunt via de bookcross-site ook weer melden waar je het hebt neergelegd, zodat anderen ernaar op zoek kunnen gaan...
TIP: Als je het boek op zijn reis wilt volgen, dan kun je je het beste aanmelden als nieuwe bookcrosser (www.bookcrossing.com). Het is erg leuk om erachter te komen hoe het met 'jouw' boek op z'n reis verder gaat!!
Ik zou het erg leuk vinden als je mij chamonix44 dan opgeeft als referent. Voor Nederlandse uitleg kun je terecht op de volgende site: www.bookcrossing.nl

If you are reading here, then I want to tell you that this is a. FREE . book, and there are no catches! It is now yours! Please read on.....
If you are the finder of this book it would be nice if you could leave a message here to say that you have it. Do not worry because I don't want the book back. It is yours to keep if you want it. I just want to know it is now in safe hands.