35)THE BOOKCROSSING CONVENTION RACE TO A MILLION!

Excellent quality paperback from out local Oxfam shop. I had borrowed a copy of this book, but I can return it now and read this copy at my leisure.

Spotted this on torialouise's wish list. Will check if he wants it once read!

Amazon.co.uk Review
Ben Elton's Dead Famous brings together his talents in comedy and crime writing to produce a hilarious and devastating novel on the gruesome world of reality TV. Peeping Tom productions invent the perfect TV programme: House Arrest. Its slogan is: "One house. Ten contestants. Thirty cameras. Forty microphones. One survivor." This is all a clever parody of the massive TV hit Big Brother, with its vain, ambitious contestants with their:
tattoos and their nipple rings, their mutual interest in star signs, their endless hugging and touching, and above all their complete lack of genuine intellectual curiosity about one single thing on this planet that was not directly connected with themselves.
However, Elton adds a clever twist to this very funny send-up. On Day 27 of the programme, one of the housemates is killed live on TV. Everyone in the country has a theory about the killer, "indeed the only person who seemed to have absolutely no idea whatsoever of the killer's identity was Inspector Stanley Spencer Coleridge, the police officer in charge of the investigation".

Big Brother 5 has just started in the UK, and my friends have told me that they think the new housemates are based on the characters in this book.

So, as I am addicted to it already, I can't help myself but jump this book to the top of my TBR pile and read it next.

It took me about 1/3 of this book to get into it, but once I did I couldn't put it down. Now my poor brain is confusing the BB I see on the tv with the BB I have read!

Interesting twist and well worth persevering with. Also makes watching BB more interesting having read Ben Elton's take on how it is produced.

This is going to be read by my DH before being passed on.

Hubby really enjoyed the book too, and echo'd my view that it makes you watch BB on tv with a fresh view.

I have had a couple of requests for this book now so it is to become a Ray.

Participants so far:-

1) Torialouise York, England
2) Katweeble Wolverhampton, England
3) Skribble London, England
4) Kert01 Southampton, Hampshire
5) billhookbabe Derby, derbyshire
5) Helly77 Burnley, England
6) Sandyundead Wolverhampton or Durham, England
7) Kernow8 - Southampton, UK
8) guinaveve Mason, Ohio USA
9) jag624 Fairfax, Virginia USA
10)jenny-lou-who Edmonton, Alberta Canada

I noticed a stalled ring for this book on my travels round cyber-space. So when all the people here have read the book I am adding a few more names at the end. If you have any problems with the posting orer then please let me know and I can see what I can organise!

So - after the names listed above please keep the book going to....

7 - Hawkette - Melbourne, Australia - Skip
8 - Ravenbear - Skip - bought their own copy!
9 - Tantie - Sydney, Australia - No repsonse to pm's - skipped
10- bilbi - France
11- terpsicore - Portugal
12 - grover3d Charleston, WV USA <-----Skipped

THIS BOOK RING/RAY IS NOW CLOSED AND THE BOOK IS BEING WILD RELEASED. THANK YOU FOR TAKING PART.

Many thanks and please all enjoy the book.

These are from this original book ray.

Here's how to play:

It's as easy as 1, 2, 3 (erm, 4!)

1. When you receive the book, make a journal entry so we can all see that it has landed safely.

2. PM the next person in line for their address straight away. If you haven't had a reply from them after a week, move on to the next name down (and drop me a line to let me know what's happened.) We can always loop back for anyone who misses out due to holidays, etc, but I'd like to keep the book travelling reasonably quickly if at all possible.

3. Read (and hopefully enjoy) the book, and make a journal entry to tell us what you thought. Don't worry if it takes a while. The main thing is to enjoy the book. The rule of thumb is to try and get it moving in a month. If you really will not get time to read it then pass it on and you can have it back again further down the line.

4. Make release notes/a journal entry to say when the book is leaving your hands and who'll be catching it next, and pop it into the post!

Posting to Toria today.

Can't wait to start reading this - should help my current BB addiction!!!

I really enjoyed this book - once i'd started i couldn't put it down! The story was well written, it starts in the middle and jumps back and forth so you don't gleam too much information all at once! A really orginal story and it makes you look at BB with fresh eyes!!

Thanks for sharing - sending to Katweeble today

Just received - will read as soon as possible - may start an interest in BB for me????

I liked the twist that you are not only guessing the killer but also who was killed until half way into the book. Have read in a day - couldn't put it down despite having lots of other things to do! Much better than the telly version.

Sandyundead has asked to be added to the ray please Weebly!

Released on Saturday, July 24, 2004 at Posted on in Wolverhampton, England United Kingdom.

Posted to Skribble today hope you enjoy

I'm looking forward to reading this as I am a big brother obsessive!

I found this book utterly compulsive. At times I started to get confused between what's going on in the real TV series & the plot of the book. This came to a head when one of my colleagues informed me of the latest conspiracy theory on the current TV series (the possibility of a housemate receiving morse-coded messages via a car horn - don't ask!).

Very scathing and extremely funny. The ending gave me a great deal of satisfaction - something I don't expect of the BB5 finale unfortunately.

This came in the post yesterday. Looks good, so I'll get onto it asap!

Arrived in the post today with a postcard of dead famous Derbyshire Youghtswoman, Ellen Macarther. Thanks very much. I am afraid I have a deep tbr at the moment but willhopefully get to this by the middle of December.

I started my own Bookring of Dead Famous quite a while ago and it got stuck! So the lovely weebly offered me to merge my Ring with her Ray and this is what came out! I'll watch it grow...

Received safely, Thankyou

*<:o)

Will read ASAP!

Really good fun, laced with the trademark Ben Elton humour. I enjoyed this, but unfortunately its making me crave more BigBrother on the TV!

will send on as soon as I get the addy of Sandyundead!

Released on Friday, January 07, 2005 at about 4:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Bookring in to another bookcrosser, By Post Controlled Releases.

RELEASE NOTES:

off to Sandyundead

This has finally returned to Wolverhampton, after I noticed it in mums (katweeble) pile and asked to be added to the list. I will read it within the next couple of weeks - it may take me slightly longer than usual as I am going back to uni next weekend. Thanks weebly and helly77.

Having read another of Ben Eltons books (Gridlock) and not been very impressed, I was a bit dubious about this book, although the idea of a murder in the BB house appealed to me. I didn't need to worry - this was excellent! I loved the fact that you didn't know who the victim was until half way through, and that no matter how many times I thought I had worked out who did it, I was always wrong :) Personally, I hate reality TV, especially having been to the jungle and everyone asking is it like 'I'm a celebrity...' (take note!), so this was the perfect kind of read to me. I can't understand how weebly can still watch it religiously :p
I will pass this on to Kernow8 in the next week or so, once I have an address and have settled back in to uni (going back tomorrow). Thanks again weebly :)

Arrived in Southampton today - thanks!

Great read! I loved every minute of this - I got so into it that when I wasn't reading it I actually thought that I had to switch the telly on to catch up the latest Big Brother news - then realised there is no BB on telly at the moment. Very entertaining. I really needed a light read too - lots of my recent reads have been a bit too challenging, so this was great to whizz through. Despite being an easy read, the writing was good - too often with books that aren't "literary fiction" I'm put off by slack writing, but Ben Elton's writing was spot on - funny and fast-paced. Thanks for the read - it'll be off to guinaveve later today.

Thank you, weebly! I look forward to reading this, especially after reading the reviews. I never got into Big Brother on TV. It seemed like a lot of boring talking to me, maybe I am missing out on something. I am addicted to Survivor, it is, in fact, the only show I watch. I think I will enjoy this book even without watching BB, as the premise sounds great.
I should have this book out to the next participant in 2 weeks or less.

This book was very interesting even though I never watched Big Brother. I spent a lot of the time reading along trying to figure out whodunnit. It was one of those books that I got so caught up in, I explained the plot to my husband who I already knew had no interest in it, just so I could talk to someone about it.
Something else I found interesting was the way the characters talked in the book using slang I don't normally hear because it is not set in the US. I never realized the difference would be so pronounced between here and there. I understood everything, but some of it was new to me. It made me wonder how widespread that manner of speaking is there. Of course, I could be out of touch with the slang here and maybe it isn't as different as I think. Anyway, I thought it really added something to the story.
I will be sending this off in 3 days, which is the next time I intend to be at the post office. I hope the participants after me enjoy it as much as I did!

RELEASE NOTES:

Enjoy!

Received in the mail yesterday, will start it today!

Really good book. Read it in a matter of days. I stayed up late last night because I just had to finish it. I love watching the U.S. version of Big Brother and it was fun to see a fictional behind the scenes look. I loved trying to figure out who the killer was!

This book just arrived in the mail! I can't wait to read it!

A fun spoof on both reality TV and formulaic murder mysteries!

UPDATE: Hawkette has asked to be skipped so I'm going to try and get in touch with the next person in line...

UPDATE [July 15]: still waiting to hear from Tantie

UPDATE: [July 23]: still no answer from Tantie after 2 PMs were sent, so I've now contacted bilbi.

UPDATE: [July 25]: this book is on the way to bilbi in France

The postman came at 8.30 this morning ! Thank you jenny-lou-who :*

The book's already had a formidable journey so far and I think it is not finished yet...

Happy summer to you all and happy BC !!

So funny ! As anyone (??!!??) I can't help watching real TV and here is a pretty good show indeed ! The participants and the producers are just so true ;-D
At the beginning of the book, the Minister of Culture is talking on TV about real TV. I'm a librarian and I was thinking of "my Minister of culture" going to a late show and saying "poo" in front of millions of people :D
Thanks for the delightful moment !

Came today in the mail with a nice postcard.
As usual,bookrings come in pairs but I will read this one just after I finish Neverwhere.

Now that was a great read!I gulped it down in 5 days.A hilarious crime fiction.I loved the way he shows the hipocrisy of reality TV.I sometimes identified with Inspector Coleridge (all bigotry set aside) because I'm one of the few people who has never watched Big Brother.
Thanks for sharing!

Grover3d has asked to be skipped so it's on it's way back to weebly.
just mailed today.

This book returned home today with a beatiful postcard from Lizbon. Thank you to all the peoiple who took part - I will now release the book in one of my OBCZ's and I hope the catcher will be impressed at how much this book has travelled.

RELEASE NOTES:

Filling up the shelves on a warm October afternoon - and the brand spanking new extension is almost finished.

Will release at Cropredy.....

RELEASE NOTES:

The church at Cropredy already has a small book collection at the rear of the building, we are attempting to make this an official BCP, the church is open during the day so no problem in collecting or leaving a book.

A small donation would be appreciated as this building costs a great deal to maintain.

Many thanks,

Steve