I have just started this and am already intrigued.


11-18-2003----I have obviously had a hard time with this read. I don't know if the subject was too dry, if my interest was too shallow or if the author digressed from the subject too much to lengthen and round out the story. All those seemed to be an issue for me. I did not even finish.

fsr44 - Rhode Island
caligula03 - California
seferim - Maryland
trygvasson - Hamburg, Germany

Received today, along with one other bookring book, so I'd better get cracking! Thank you!

I made it through the book, but I skipped the glossary and acknowledgements (huge for someone as biblio-obsessive as I). Not a thing wrong with the prose, but the subject matter is, you should pardon the pun, dry as dust. This would probably be riveting stuff for a geologist, but unless you have more than a passing interest in the subject, you might find it a tad dull.

Sending to Caligula03 who's next on the bookray.

The book arrived safe and sound. I will read it as soon as I can.

2/13/04: Seferim has requested to be skipped. Will PM whomever is next when I get home from work.

It was a very enjoyable and easy read. There are parts scattered throughout the book where the author tends to ramble and wander onto tangents. The book would have been stronger and tighter if the author had stayed on topic. The line drawings peppered through the book add a nice bit of visual detail but I would have liked to have seen even more of them used.

Release planned for Saturday, February 21, 2004 at trygvasson in n/a, n/a Controlled Releases.

Mailng to trygvasson.

Thanks to Caligula03 for sending this to me - and of course to jennyscott for sharing this with all of us (nice postcard by the way) - I received the book in today´s mail and it´s sitting now on the top of my TBR-pile. I already flipped a few pages and I´m growing a tiny little bit afraid that I will have to dig out my dictionary... I´m just a poor german, after all.
:-)

Update: I´m practically halfway through already - without extensive use of said dictionary I might add... I find it very interesting to learn all these facts - and I have to admit that I didn´t really know all this - so it´s fun to read AND it makes me a lot smarter, too...

An interesting read ... the comments made me a little wary (dry as dust etc.). Perhaps I´m a geologist at heart - who knows? But since I´m interested in archaeology that seems to explain the fact that I found it really interesting. This William Smith must have been a queer person though - to tackle a task like that - and running into debt on top of it. It would be easier to comprehend some of the facts if there were more drawings - and, yes, the author wanders off topic a little (some of these wanderings were in fact helpful because they contain background knowledge). Overall - this books gives the impression of an overly long article in "National Geographic".
A wild release in Germany - hmmm - I didn´t have to many successes with english books - so I´ll try to find other takers via the forum...

Offered as a bookray...

The bookray continues:
> Ben-Nevis, Germany int
> Arwen-Galadriel, Canada int
> MollyGrue, US
> sarajenny, US ?
> ResQGeek, US int
> newk, Australia int current reader

Basic rules:
Please make a journal entry upon receiving the book - enjoy a good read - make a journal entry with a comment - PM the next bookcrosser for his/her address - put the book in the mail and make a release note.
If anyone wants to drop out of the bookray/-ring: please PM me so I can update the list.
In a bookray: last bookcrosser does a release wherever he/she thinks suitable - or you might consider to start another bookring or -ray with it.

Released on Thursday, April 08, 2004 at Posted to another bookcrosser in Hamburg, Germany, By Post Controlled Releases.

On its way to Ben-Nevis, Bochum, Germany.

Have recieved the book today from trygvasson, just in time as I had just finished a book yesterday. So I will start reading right now and let you know what I think about it.

First of all I have to say that I am not a geologist. Than I have to admit that I found it quite hard to read at times. But overall I enjoyed reading it is well narrated contains lots of information. I would have preferred to hear more about the story behind the map, and the person William Smith who seems to be a very enigmatic person. As far as I am concerned there is too much about the geology, which can be a bit dry.
I will post it to Arwen-Galadriel soon.

Received today along with another bookray/bookring book so I will hopefully be able to start shortly.

Sorry it took so long, but I will be sending this book off tonight to the next person on the list.

As for my thoughts, I really enjoyed the book even some of the more normally boring science stuff (which I actually did in some of my anthropology classes for archeaology). I would recommend this this book for other people to read even if they aren't normally interested in science type stuff. A fun read.

Picked this up yesterday. I have a couple of rings ahead of it, but should get to this fairly soon.

I finished this book today. I did like it, but I felt the author meandered far too much and only really got into William Smith's life at the end, when he wasn't really working as a geologist anymore.

I will be most happy to pass this book along as soon as I get Sarajenny's address.

I finished this book today. I did like it, but I felt the author meandered far too much and only really got into William Smith's life at the end, when he wasn't really working as a geologist anymore.

I will be most happy to pass this book along as soon as I get Sarajenny's address.

RELEASE NOTES:

Sent to Resqgeek. Happy reading!

DC# 03041070000256459439

Arrived in the mail yesterday. Perfect timing, as I just finished a book, so I can start on this right away.

While this book does include much interesting information, it also is longer than it needs to me and suffers from a bit of a split personality. Perhaps the greatest strength of this book is the biographical material on William Smith. We are provided with a pretty clear picture of the man and his career, and how he conceived and developed his theories that gave birth to the modern science of geology. Had the author stayed focused on the biography, this book would be much more concise and enjoyable. Unfortunately, this book is also a history of the early development of geology as a science, with many digressions into the careers and personalities of the other early English scientists in this field. Throw in a heavy amount of geological details and a completely superfluous chapter about the author's attempts to retrace Smith's travels, and Smith's story becomes lost in a maze of distracting details, most of which aren't necessary to appreciate the contributions Smith made, or the story of his life. Also, for someone not intimitely familiar with English geography, it is difficult to visualize the relative locations of much of this narrative. A basic map showing the various towns, cities and regions would have been helpful to those of us with only the most general sense of the layout of the English countryside.

I'll be taking this to the post office later today to send it off to Australia.

[added: Sent via surface mail, so it may take 6-8 weeks to arrive.]

newk has it thanks

This book is interesting but real life is busy and I am trying to read the Booker prize short list on top of usual reading commitments. Hence I have ordered a personal copy of this from an online book retailer. To read at my leisure later. So as not to interrupt the journey of this copy.

Now I am unsure of where this goes next?

Any ideas from all you lot?

Thanks all for getting this book to me. It has certainly travelled.

Thanks to jennyscott for beginning the journey. Thanks to trygvasson for continuing the ring and ResQgeek for sending it all the way here.

It seems I am the end of the line. If I don't hear from any of you with a better idea I shall take this to Australia's first bookcrossing convention in Sydney in a coupla weeks.

Indeed, after discussion with the originator of the book I am posting it to Sydey so I can meet up with it there and help it on its journey.
Thanks again all. I shall read my own copy soon.

Released on Saturday, November 13, 2004 at about 12:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at BCAUS Release Frenzy 2004 in Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia.

RELEASE NOTES:

On the bridge:

see here:
Its release is buried in the story of this book