COVER: There’s no place like home. Or is there?

After an ‘incident’ one wet Friday night where he is found walking naked through the streets of Cambridge, Professor Andrew Martin is not feeling quite himself. Food sickens him. Clothes confuse him. Even his loving wife and teenage son are repulsive to him. He feels lost amongst a crazy alien species and hates everyone on the planet. Everyone, that is, except Newton, and he’s a dog.

Who is he really? And what could make someone change their mind about the human race?

THE HUMANS by MATT HAIG (2013) ISBN: 0857868780 Publisher: Canongate Books (4/3/2014)
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This book is a gift. It has been given by a passionate volunteer as part of World Book Night 2014 on April 23 to spread the joy of books and reading – particularly among those who don’t yet love to read. You can keep it or pass it on. There are no strings, but please do try it. It’s a great book and we think you are going to love it.

Because everything changes when we read.

Whenever I find WORLD BOOK NIGHT books on the shelves of charity shop’s I buy them to liberate back to free-travelling in the world again. I’m registering this with BookCrossing but simply have to read it first and on merely picking it up to get details to register it with found myself somehow on page 30! I’ve been spluttering with laughter and I’m intrigued… So far so good!

WOW — Page 159
I go outside and sit on the steps.
I'm not waiting.
I'm just being.
Time exists only in my mind.
For someone grieving, moving forward is a challenge.
Because after extreme loss, you want to go back.
Maybe that's why I don't calculate anything now. I can only count in the negative space.
I'm on a different planet now.
I only speak when I absolutely have to.
Otherwise, I do my best to be invisible and stay out of the way.
No matter how hard they try, other people do not understand because I'm incapable of communication.
And that is why the deepest form of pain comes out as silence.

Matt Haig, critically acclaimed author of REASONS TO STAY ALIVE has written a clever, heartening, and darkly insightful novel about an alien who comes to Earth to save humans from themselves. His task, to remove knowledge that could enable humans to become dangerous to neighbours near and far and while remaining focused and pure to this purpose he has to be careful not to be infected by human traits. Haig’s created some wonderfully eccentric viewpoints and endearing interactions as someone other than Professor Andrew Martin walks his body through the professors domestic and professional life in Cambridge. The understanding required to attempt to appear human was fascinating, touching and hilarious in turn. I was particularly impressed with his skill in learning such languages as ‘eye movement’ and ‘frowns’, and undoubtably, his understanding of ‘dog' captured my heart.

Three quotes I just have to refer to that praise this well are…
"Matt Haig's hilarious novel puts our species on the spot" GUARDIAN
"A wonderfully funny, gripping and inventive novel. Like Kurt Vonnegut and Audrey Niffenegger, Haig uses the tropes of science fiction to explore and satirise concepts of free will, love, marriage, logic, immortality and mercy with elegance and poignancy" THE TIMES
"The Humans is a laugh-and-cry book. Troubling, thrilling, puzzling, believable and impossible. Matt Haig uses words like a tin-opener. We are the tin" JEANETTE WINTERSON

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Thrilled a family member requested this after BookCrosser Flutterbies9 and I waxed lyrical about it during a Skype call, so on it travels!

Many thanks rainbow3, apologies for the delay in journalling as this arrived last week.

Well, here's an exception to the rule!. This reached here and TC spotted it in front of the computer to be registered as arrived and whipped it away (after the initial hurried journalling). It did not last any time on tbr and was read by him in half a week (very quickly for him) and he loved it! Much chuckling from him as he read it. He thought it was an interesting perspective to take on humanity, was humorous and made him think about humanity in general and he then also proceeded to rave about it to me.
Consequently, it never really reached tbr again but was placed on my pillow in a swift manoeuvre of 'you must read this now'. I did and I also was hooked on it straight away, though it only took two nights to be completed. I thought it was very interesting to read which traits he had picked as being human and how they were used in society. Fascinating and strangely, very easy to read. I would indeed read another from this author and having looked him up, I think I’ll choose something specific to put on my wishlist.

I have a feeling there was a plan for this but I cannot recall what. I must get back to rainbow3 about this one.

I almost feel sorry to pass this on as I really did appreciate this one and had serious thoughts about putting this on permanent collection, but then again, it would be nice if someone else appreciated it also, so here is one I saw that was on your wishlist and I had available. Hope you enjoy!

Happy travels little book.

Thanks so much for this - an extra treat catching a ride with a RABCK!

I finally got round to reading this and absolutely loved it! I'd previously read 'The Radleys' and so had mistakenly also thought this was about vampires which was a bit confusing at first but it only took a few pages to get into it and I read it in a couple of days.
I loved the way it celebrated that people are imperfect and illogical but have so much potential for life and love and music and beauty - all wrapped up with a sci-fi twist.
Thanks so much for sharing!

Added to Favourite Lines bookbox

What an inventive story. It is funny, poignant and insightful. My favourite line was "On earth, social networking generally involves..... Typing words about needing a coffee and reading about other people needing a coffee, while forgetting to actually make a coffee." That is so true.

Sending as a wishlist RABCK

Thank you so much for the surprised 2 book RABCK package! I shall do my best get this moving again as soon as I can.

I found this book a quite disorientating to start off with, but genius as I stuck with it. It is a very clever and unique concept for a story. Quite unclassifiable genre wise. The author packed this story full of wit and brilliant life observations. I particularly loved the “Advice for a human” chapter. I shall do my best to follow this brilliant guidance. The authors note and acknowledgements at the end were quite special too.

I also loved this from P143
“He stuffed some crisps into his mouth and made no attempt to conceal their fate.”

Putting together a surprise RABCK package to send along with two books I already promised to a fellow BookCrosser. Hope you enjoy working your way through this lot.

Thank you so much to Shahrun for sending me this book as a RABCK!

I actually completely forgot that I had this one on my wish list but as soon as I read the blub I instantly remembered why I wanted to read this book and now I'm super excited to read it, especially after reading the other journal entries.

I love how much this book has traveled so far and I definitely intend to keep this book going, so as soon as I have finished it I will be finding another eager reader to pass this on to :)

Love love love this book. It was funny and intelligent and I'm so glad that I got to read it. It was one of those books that I kept forgetting about reading, but when I did eventually pick it up I couldn't put it back down. There were many laugh out loud moments that had my fiance looking at me like I was crazy but what does he know, his not a reader.

This book is now making its way to York for a fellow bookcrosser to enjoy :)