Crossing Paths - The BookCrossing Novel
22 journalers for this copy...
Now going off as a book ray.
Here's the link to the forum thread.
https://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/20/570857
To those taking part please send on to the next person within a month. If there are any hold ups please message me.
Participants (Order may change if necessary)
Poodlesister - UK (UK/Europe) - 07.11.20
elstaplador - UK (Int) - 25.11.20
Shahrun - UK (Int) - 15.01.21
rahar109 - UK (UK/Europe) - 23.04.21
Yogiberri - UK (UK) - 17.05.21
Andrea99 - UK (UK/poss Europe) - 17.06.21
Dolph1n - UK (UK) - 17.07.21
Ythan - UK (Europe) - 26.07.21
JPix - UK (UK/Europe) - 18.08.21
etripney - UK (UK) - No Response
Trojanhorse - UK (UK) - 22.09.21
Teapot - UK (UK/Europe) - 26.01.22
Mankyi - Switzerland (EU) - 04.03.22
Fifna - Netherlands (EU) - 06.05.22
dacejav - Latvia/Georgia Summer - 07.07.22
Bookworm-lady - Spain (Int) - 16.08.22
Icila- France (Int) - 03.10.22
lunacia - Norway (Norway/Europe) - 23/02/23
FraukeRo - Norway (Int) - 16/10/23
Kiki66 - Germany (Int) - 08/12/23
penelopewanders - France (Int) - 02/02/24
J4shaw - (Int)
xtrdnry - Australia (Aus)
leah152 -Australia (Aus/Int)
tigergirlnz - NZ (NZ/Aus/Int)
Gaboyd - NZ (Int)
Olivia_Lo - Taiwan (Int)
Estelle1806 - Ireland (Int)
Brookler - Canada
mscar - Canada (US/poss Int)
eponine38 - USA (US/poss Int)
hyphen8 - USA (US)
HI77 - USA (US)
echode - USA (US)
Azuki - USA (US)
debnance - USA (US)
BOOKWORMINUSALL - USA (US)
samid - USA (US)
IMissBookIt - USA
Released 3 yrs ago (11/4/2020 UTC) at to next participant, a ring/ray -- Controlled Releases
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Released 3 yrs ago (11/19/2020 UTC) at Bookray, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Join UK Bookcrossers at the Newcastle Unconvention from 1st-3rd October 2021
So sorry for holding the book up for so long, working covid life is hectic. I have the next readers address and will pack this up tonight to post Monday.
Thank you.
At first I found all the places/people confusing - particularly Jeremy/Jonathan - and I couldn't see the point of Jane's name changes.
My main problems with the book (apart from the length):
Far, far too many internal agonisings and angst. I lost interest about half way through.
People falling madly in love after a couple of PMs, journal entries and brief meetings.
Unrealistic depiction of Bookcrossing. In 16 years I have only found two wild releases, and other than meet-ups and Conventions, I have never come across another Bookcrosser. Yet these people are tripping over BC books, bookcrossers, and every release seems to be caught - if only!
Oh, and there's a psychic woman and a H G Wells short story thrown in for good measure.
Still, it was good to see some familiar names in there.
PMing the next reader.
Enjoy!
Released 2 yrs ago (6/15/2021 UTC) at Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex United Kingdom
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Released 2 yrs ago (7/15/2021 UTC) at Bookray, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
I liked the idea but it just didn't work for me.
I'll pass it on when I have an address.
Thanks very much.
Congratulations Sparkish on the longest participant list I've ever seen in my 16 years of bookrossing.
I don't think it matters that it's not an accurate representation of bookcrossing, that's the joy of fiction, take the best bits of the community and make it what it needs to be for the story.
Released 2 yrs ago (8/17/2021 UTC) at Bookray, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Released 2 yrs ago (9/21/2021 UTC) at Southampton, Hampshire United Kingdom
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
I've been in touch with the next in line and have teapot's address so this will be on the move again shortly.
Released 2 yrs ago (1/15/2022 UTC) at Bookray, -- By post or by hand/ in person -- United Kingdom
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
If you need to throw in a psychic in order to move the plot along and get characters to interact, you have a fundamental problem.
I felt the dialogue was a little artificial and very repetitive. All the characters' internal monologues were identical, no one had a distinct voice.
I was quite intrigued by Jane's story in the beginning, but soon found myself getting irritated by the book. How many times other characters listed off books and potential release locations, to stalk this poor girl all over the world because they know what's best for her!
And this is quite a petty quibble but it really annoyed me - the number of times peope were described by heir nationality: The two Americans, the Frenchman, the young Australian woman, the young Greek, the Canadian, the Englishwoman... The author constantly referred to Jane as "the young Australian", sometimes several times per page.
It really needed another round of copyediting and proofreading.
But I'm still glad I took part in this enormous bookray, and the book has inspired me to do a bit more wild releasing in the future!
UPDATE: As much as I wanted to like this book, unfortunately, it's 1,5 stars for me. I was glad to see some familiar BC names, such as over-the-moon, but that basically sums up everything nice that I have to say about this book.
Those fictional Bookcrossers sounded a bit like lunatics to me! They send 1-2 PMs to other BCers and - voila!- " fall in love"! Or, they start chasing their fellow BCer around the world, when she clearly wants to be left alone - that's creepy!
Who the hell is being let near the luggage carousel at the airport arrivals to meet someone? Who can "travel around the world in 80 days" without ever needing a visa? Who gets in touch over the internet with people they've never seen before and considers them "a family"? Those are our fictional Bookcrossers! Oh, and Ruth the psychic - I'm not even going to say anything here, in the end, everyone seems to be just doing whatever she has imagined or dreamt, without ever questioning her sanity. What?
The plot is simply boring and unrealistic, the characters are dull and lack any common sense and the book has too many pages for what it has to offer to the reader.
If you aren't familiar with Bookcrossing, take a few minutes to check out this very cool site. Bookcrossers LOVE books, and more than anything, they love to read books and then set them free for other people to find and enjoy. I would love it if you would leave a journal entry -- you can say where you found the book or how you liked it when you read it.
A very strange book. A book about BookCrossing, which she compares to "a parallel universe." She does create a parallel BookCrossing, where everybody seems to be a bookcrosser, they fall in love with each other after one message, they confess love in journal entries, they pass the same book back and forth to each other several times, the books seem to follow them, books travel from the US to Europe in less than a week, and everyone interferes with other people's business. I must say that I prefer the real BookCrossing to this fantasy BookCrossing.
I could not feel Jane's grief and she often really acted like a mad woman. And what was so special about her that all the men were falling head over heels over her? Finally, all that new age stuff was getting too much for my liking towards the end. And finally finally, there were quite a few typos - misspelled words, mixed up names (somebody had corrected one such place with a pencil) and two places where time was mixed up - PM with AM.
What I liked about the book - BookCrossing references, familiar names such as over-the-moon and MissMarkey, travelling (I often Googled up pictures of locations and discovered some nice ones on the way) and bookish references (most literature seemed too depressing for my liking, but maybe I will note down some AUS/NZ related books and authors). Ah, and even if it seems (and IS) too long with 600 pages, it reads faster than I thought because of many book journals and half-pages.
Released 1 yr ago (8/5/2022 UTC) at book ring/ray, By Mail/Post/Courier -- Controlled Releases
CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:
Thanks, Dacejav, for sending it; and thanks, Sparkish, for making it available. It might take me a while to read it... as long as I am interested, as I am slightly discouraged by previous reviews. :(
I agree almost word by word with rahar109's comments; this is an ideal Bookcrossing world, where you can check the daily releases at leisure over breakfast and then go to find the book you want, which is patiently waiting there for you... on a cafe's table? No cleaning up by waiters? These would last around 5 minutes around here...
These characters have plenty of money and time to travel around the world in order to release the books in the adequate places... and they can meet their friends who come to fetch them by the baggage carousel... has the author ever been in an international airport?
Most characters behave childishly, falling head over heels in love by PM, sending personal messages to each other in book journals, and putting aside their lives in order to find the fascinating Jane / Ali / Sarah... I also found annoying the constant references to "the young Australian"... And couldn't she have come up with two names not so similar as Jeremy / Jonathan? I read big chunks of the book thinking about the wrong character, before realizing it did not make sense.
I agree that this needs some heavy proofreading and editing... I finished its 600 pages but could not wait for it to end, I must confess...
However, not everything is bad; some quotes I enjoyed:
"This is what life is all about! Loving someone and being prepared to lose them. But at least getting the chance to love someone."
"Most of Boston was at work now in their glass steel and brick buildings and here was he sitting outside in the sunshine with his working day to structure as he wished. That aspect had always been the joy of his profession. Yes, there were money worries but he could take a day off and work in the night to make up. His life was his own. This meant of course that if he chose to fly to Paris in a week... then the choice was his to make. He would just have extra work waiting for him when he got back." (I can identify with this, as a freelancer...)
And some familiar names thrown in for good measure: over-the-moon, flambard, MissMarkey... I loved this!
Anyway, thanks for giving us the chance to read this... It reminded me of my first stage at Bookcrossing, where I kept looking at benches and tables thinking there would be books waiting for me... and that all my wild releases would be found and journalled... Few of them were, and of course not by BCers I knew...
Soon to continue its travels...
The Bookcrossing novel continues bookcrossing... :)
Also - FraukeRo is not in Norway anymore, so it will have to be mailed off outside of Norway.
oh my, this is quite a book!
We'll see how long it'll take - now with the Bethlehem Rally in full swing ;-)
edit: forgot to say thank you for the bookcrossing sticker!!
This wasn't at all my cup of tea and I honestly don't know why I finished it. Even my husband asked "are you still reading this book?" ;-)
There were way too many characters and since I only have time in the evening to read I needed quite some time to get into it again and sort out who's who!
I didn't like Jane at all. And I didn't understand her.. this to and fro and J yes and J no.. poor man.
What was so special about her that they all started chasing her around the world?
Same for Russel and Jonathan... will he like me? oh he's so good looking.. Am I good enough for him? oh man!!
But worst of all was the constant "the Canadian" "the young Australian" "the Frenchman", the "Englishman"... after three repetitions on ONE page I really wanted to scream!
The book was way too long and I have to admit I do not know ANY of these books mentioned here... but that's probably me and my choice of reading.
And - as mentioned several times here - bookcrossing doesn't work this way!
Anyway, enough ranting - the book will be on its way to France this week....
Thanks for sending and making this available.
I don't know how easy this would be to follow if one were not a bookcrosser, but at the same time my experience as a bookcrosser (coming up on 20 years, wow!) is quite different from that described in the book (see below).
I tried not to read other reviews before starting mine (in general, but especially here), but I did catch a glimpse of Bethany's mentioning that she found there were a few too many characters or names. I agree that it took me a while to cotton on to the system, between the bookcrossing names and the character's names and the other names of people who released books but did not get involved in the (extremely) complicated connections. And of course, Jane very quickly starts taking on other names as well, which I found very strange indeed. Confusing.
On the whole I actually enjoyed this more than I expected - and appreciated Jonathan and Russell's story, and Ruth (and Teddy) and Daphne...
Hopefully no spoilers here. I did struggle with the wild love between Jeremy and Ali, given that they'd met perhaps twice before it was clear to Jeremy that this was his one true love. At the same time, he seemed concerned about how often he's have to be consoling and comforting... rather a shaky role to hold in a long term relationship, I think. I did find Jane/Ali/Sarah difficult - apparently very young and nonetheless a veritable femme fatale when required. Her choices are more or less explained, but I was not touched by her apparent charisma, so often found her more annoying than anything else.
Likewise Pascal and Mary, as much as I liked Mary, their relationship took off so quickly it lacked credibility - but at least, unlike Jeremy and Jane, they actually wrote to each other beyond cryptic messages in the journals.
Perhaps coming from Australia, the criss-crossing itinerary of Jane is not shocking, but I couldn't help wondering about the logic. Also getting to the UK from France by train often requires at least changing in Paris, although she was keen to steer clear of it... for example.
What surprised me most about the book was the way the actual bookcrossing was depicted. I have not done a great deal of book hunting (although a bookcrossing friend did once indicate to me where she would be leaving a book in Luzern, and I was happy to find it there). Here the hectic pace of releases and catches surprised me - arriving too late to get the book as someone else had already snatched it up - my experience of wild releases has been sadly stagnant (So far only one book of the many I wild released was ever caught and it was only journalled once).
This is why I much prefer rings, rays, book boxes and VBBs.
Also I was surprised by the number of private messages in the book journals - I have made a number of bookcrossing friends, but we send each other private messages or even eventually exchange emails. I usually refrain from putting anything personal in the journalling of books, including real names. But maybe that's just me.
Anyway, I am very curious to hear how a non-bookcrosser would find this book.
Meanwhile I remain an enthusiastic bookcrosser - thanks so much lakelady2282 for writing this and sharing it with the world.
Now I have read the comments by the others and have to say we all seem to be on the same page.
I have written for the next address.