The Grand Complication
9 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by niccijl from Bradford, West Yorkshire United Kingdom on Saturday, October 23, 2004
This book is going to be my very first bookray! It is an intelligent literary thriller about a bibliophile and an 18th Century inventor.
The current participants are listed below. Please read and pass on the book within one month of receipt. If you can't do this for any reason, could you please pm me, and the person after you to let them know. It is up to you to get the next person's mailing details.
Enjoy.
Bookray members in mailing order are:
goodthinkingmax (Aus)
Lpree (US) int
LaughAtlantis (US) int
milly1401 (Scot) int
maupi (Netherlands) Europe
bacicoline (France) int
okyrhoe (Greece) int
PCSAF (Portugal) Europe - current home
jcoelho (Portugal)
Please journal the book to say that you have received it, and then again once you have read it.
The current participants are listed below. Please read and pass on the book within one month of receipt. If you can't do this for any reason, could you please pm me, and the person after you to let them know. It is up to you to get the next person's mailing details.
Enjoy.
Bookray members in mailing order are:
goodthinkingmax (Aus)
Lpree (US) int
LaughAtlantis (US) int
milly1401 (Scot) int
maupi (Netherlands) Europe
bacicoline (France) int
okyrhoe (Greece) int
PCSAF (Portugal) Europe - current home
jcoelho (Portugal)
Please journal the book to say that you have received it, and then again once you have read it.
Journal Entry 2 by niccijl from Bradford, West Yorkshire United Kingdom on Thursday, November 4, 2004
Book mailed out to goodthinkingmax.
Journal Entry 3 by goodthinkingmax from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Monday, November 8, 2004
Received this book in the post today. It looks so new and untouched..will have to read it carefully. Thanks for sending this all the way to Australia Niccijl. I will be able to start this immediately.
Journal Entry 4 by goodthinkingmax from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Sunday, November 14, 2004
The Grand Complication is beautifully written and unlike anything I have read before. It is a mystery but with very dark unlikeable central characters and also some wonderful humourous descriptions. Kurzwell has researched this novel so well and the descriptions of behind the scenes at the library and of researching methods were so interesting. I especially loved all the library characters and laughed all the way through the description of the staff meeting and all the trivial concerns that had become so large. (I have experienced many of these meetings myself).
In the end, I did not care so much about whether the mystery was solved. I enjoyed the language, descriptions, amusing characters and insight into the world of books and time more than the plot itself.
I will send this off to the US as soon as I have Lpree's address.
In the end, I did not care so much about whether the mystery was solved. I enjoyed the language, descriptions, amusing characters and insight into the world of books and time more than the plot itself.
I will send this off to the US as soon as I have Lpree's address.
This arrived in yesterday's mail. I'm reading another bookring book, but this is next on my TBR list and I expect to start it in a couple of days. I'm looking forward to reading this!
I finished this last night. What an interesting story! The main characters are both likeable and unlikeable at times. I was never quite sure what to think of them. I felt a bit sorry for Nic, but I did love all of the book & library talk. The story certainly kept my interest to the very end.
I'll PM the next person on the list and hope to mail it out on Monday. Thanks for starting this ring!
UPDATE 12/20 - This book was sent media mail to LaughAtlantis today.
I'll PM the next person on the list and hope to mail it out on Monday. Thanks for starting this ring!
UPDATE 12/20 - This book was sent media mail to LaughAtlantis today.
Received late last week - I should be starting this by mid-week.
I really enjoyed this book up until about the last fifty pages or so, and then I felt like the story unraveled. The ending felt like a cop-out, of sorts. It tried too hard to be clever, and for me, it failed.
Journal Entry 9 by LaughAtlantis at -- Controlled Release in Boston, Massachusetts USA on Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Released on Tuesday, January 11, 2005 at about 3:00:00 PM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Postal release in Boston, Massachusetts USA.
RELEASE NOTES:
Sending off this evening...
RELEASE NOTES:
Sending off this evening...
arrived today as part of book ring. TBR
....sorry folks, have to admit defeat. Really couldn't get into this. found the central character irritating and a lot of the references too obscure. Should really stick at it but better to send it on to a new reader I think. Am sending it on to maupi.
....sorry folks, have to admit defeat. Really couldn't get into this. found the central character irritating and a lot of the references too obscure. Should really stick at it but better to send it on to a new reader I think. Am sending it on to maupi.
I got it. Thank you all.
Quite some different opinions here. The book looks very intriguing to me. We'll see if I'll like it.
Quite some different opinions here. The book looks very intriguing to me. We'll see if I'll like it.
I finished this book last night and I really loved it. All of it up to the last page. Highly entertaining, very well constructed. Thank you niccijl for sharing! Again, a book I might not have discovered without BX.
Just waiting for the next address now and on it will travel.
BTW, the picture is a Breguet Antoinette!
Oh, and Milly: I too found the central character irritating, but as long as he's in the book and not bothering me irl, I can take it ;-)
Received it yesterday, I've just begun to read it and I already find this book interesting.
The problem is that the words seem difficult to me so I feel that I'm reading slowly. And I feel ashamed when I see that you have taken so little time to read it...
If you want me to be faster (is this Englis ???) you may really tell it by pm!
The problem is that the words seem difficult to me so I feel that I'm reading slowly. And I feel ashamed when I see that you have taken so little time to read it...
If you want me to be faster (is this Englis ???) you may really tell it by pm!
I've just finished it and found it really thrilling and the story is very novel (that is the word my dictionary gave me... I hope it sounds ok !)
What is absolutely incredible is that the hero's wife comes from the same city as me...
Really, how many chances are there to read an English book talking about a librarian married with a French woman coming from the town where you were born ????
But the main problem for me is that I had problems to understand some vocabulary, even if I looked many words up. So I'm sure that I missed some clues or did not understand everything. I've read many English books but I think this one was difficult because of the words.
I really have to improve my English...
Thanks for making me discover this book !
I'm waiting for okyrhoe's address.
What is absolutely incredible is that the hero's wife comes from the same city as me...
Really, how many chances are there to read an English book talking about a librarian married with a French woman coming from the town where you were born ????
But the main problem for me is that I had problems to understand some vocabulary, even if I looked many words up. So I'm sure that I missed some clues or did not understand everything. I've read many English books but I think this one was difficult because of the words.
I really have to improve my English...
Thanks for making me discover this book !
I'm waiting for okyrhoe's address.
The book arrived in my mailbox today. Just in time for some nice summer reading. Thanks niccijl, bacicoline, and everyone else in the ray so far!
As a suspenseful mystery thriller, this novel could very well become an entertaining film, especially with the final scenes in the book.
I enjoyed the 'insider' humor on conducting research, and working in libraries. Someone less familiar might need to look up certain terms and practices regarding the organization and operation of libraries. That should not deter readers from this book; it's not that complicated...
Actually, I believe the author's intention (or one of them) is to motivate us to engage in some research & outside reading of our own. In that sense, when the novel ends, the mystery hasn't come to a final closure.
The book is quite generous with puns - the author / narrator plays with words, names, images, data. Also, the protagonist's description has several similarities with the biographical details of the author.)
Watch the online video of Allen Kurzweil talking about A Grand Complication.
I enjoyed the 'insider' humor on conducting research, and working in libraries. Someone less familiar might need to look up certain terms and practices regarding the organization and operation of libraries. That should not deter readers from this book; it's not that complicated...
Actually, I believe the author's intention (or one of them) is to motivate us to engage in some research & outside reading of our own. In that sense, when the novel ends, the mystery hasn't come to a final closure.
The book is quite generous with puns - the author / narrator plays with words, names, images, data. Also, the protagonist's description has several similarities with the biographical details of the author.)
Watch the online video of Allen Kurzweil talking about A Grand Complication.
I received it!! As soon as I read, I'll tell what I thought about it.
