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!

Erm... this book isn't "Stuart: A Life Backwards" as it says above, but "The Relectant Fundamentalist" by Mohsin Hamid. At least I hope so!

Picked up at the bookcrossing meetup last night. Thanks very much kinedi who gave it to me.

Edit (4 hours later): Looks like someone at World Book Night has read my journal entry. The registered title and author have changed. Thanks!

The beauty of the novel is its ability to take the reader into different worlds, and to hence expose them to different cultural and political standpoints with minimal effort required. I love it when a story takes me away from my comfort zone, but does so in a way that doesn't irritate, offend or jar. The Reluctant Fundamentalist does that.

Changez's narrative is as informative as many a long-winded political study, but many times more captivating. The front cover is right - it reads like a thriller. I was part-desperate, part-scared to read the final few pages, not knowing what I was going to find. His gradual disillusionment with the American dream is convincing and thought-provoking. However, his inability to formulate any alternate Utopia (other than in the delicious nature of Pakistani food) shows that this is not a terrorist apologist's book, but a sincere attempt to shake the western reader into the complex realities of 'anti-Americanism'.

To be released at the Unconvention.

If you are new to bookcrossing - welcome and congratulations for finding a book! Please leave a journal entry to let me and any other readers know where it has gone and what you thought of it.

I got this from the book table at the Unconvention. Thank you!

As there is quite a hype about this novel, I was really thrilled to be finally able to read it. Unfortunately it didn't wholly fulfill my expectations.

It is a good book, well written. But I am sorry to say that 5 weeks after I read it, I now hardly remember its content, which isn't a good sign.... no lasting impression other that I still don't know how to interpretate the ending.

Maybe it is better suited for an American reader who is able to reflect his own stereotypes / prejudices ...

Counts for Pakistan.

Greetings to Edinburgh, this book will travel to Vietnam soon.

Liebe Finderin, lieber Finder,

Gratulation, dass Du dieses Buch gefunden hast! Ich hoffe, es gefällt Dir. Du hast nicht nur ein Buch, sondern eine ganze Gemeinschaft von Leserinnen und Lesern gefunden, die Bücher lieben. Schau Dir die Seite mal an! Vielleicht willst Du Bookcrossing ja beitreten? Das ist anonym, kostenlos und macht Spaß!

Hello! Bookcrossing is a online community of book lovers dedicated to sharing books with each other and the world at large. We are curious to see how far and wide it will travel and how its readers like it. Feel free to read and keep this book, pass it on to a friend or leave it somewhere else for the next reader. If you journal this book as a member, then you will hear from the book as it travels around. Happy reading!