Bought from a member of the Expats-in-Zurich Yahoo Group.
Re-read then offer as bookring

Welcome to the Bookray for Therapy: David Lodge

Member \ Location (Ring posted June 9th 2005)
:-) sun-beetle \ Switzerland
:-) Crenhov \ Switzerland
:-) aubriel \ UK
:-) sunlightbub \ UK
:-) emilythegoat \ UK
:-) silentmiaouw \ Switzerland (wants to be near the end!)
:-) xula \ Spain <-- Book is here
:-) anna1000 \ Germany (last participant)
Back to me...

Small Print
:-) If you wish to be added to the list, please PM me with your details.
:-) You must be prepared to mail internationally.
:-) PM the next person on the list for their address, then send the book.
:-) It's not a race, but please read and send the book on as soon as you can.
:-) Please journal the book once you have received it (so we all know where it is) and again when you have read it (so we know what you thought of it!)
:-) If you're the last person on the list, please wild release or keep or trade or RABCK this book as you wish!

I love David Lodge, and this is a great novel, about feelings, therapy, how we evaluate what we have in our lives, and how we decide whether we're happy! A great read! Lodge normally writes from an academic setting, but this novel revolves (loosely) around screenwriting and the world of TV! If you haven't read David Lodge before, you should! it's witty, clever and entertaining writing :-)

From back cover
"A successful sitcom writer with plenty of money, a stable marriage, a platonic mistress and a flash car, Laurence "Tubby" Passmore has more reason than most to be happy. Yet neither physiotherapy nor aromatherapy, cognitive-behaviour therapy or acupuncture can cure his puzzling knee pain or his equally inexplicable mid-life angst.

As Tubby's life fragments under the weight of his self-obsession, he embarks -via Kierkegaard, strange beds from Rummidge to Tenerife to Beverley Hills, a fit of literary integrity and memories of his 1950s South London boyhood - on a picaresque quest for his lost contentment..."

Interview with David Lodge on "Small World"

I will pass this book onto Crehov (Carmen) at the Zurich Meetup at Cafe Gloria on June 9th 2005. Happy Travelling & Happy Therapy!

given to me by nice-cup-of-tea who introduced me to this writer, thanks!
After reading I'll send it on to crenhov.

Another great book by David Lodge. I just love his humour, there's some great bits in this book about sex, being an unhappy hoper, the past-present-future theme,...,.

Tubby will be on his way to crenhov with his story. Enjoy!

I've just finished reading it and really enjoyed it. Thanks for starting this book ring as it is probably a book I would not otherwise have picked up to read.

I've just sent a PM to secretspirit as s/he is next on the list. As soon as I recieve the mailing address, I'll send it on...

Arrived this morning - I do have a few before this in my TBR pile though.

This was a nice read. Really I felt I shouldn't like Tubby, but you sort of felt sorry for him in an odd sort of way.

It isn't something I would have normally read, but that is the magic of bookcrossing getting you to read things you wouldn't ordinarily have thought of.

I love David Lodge, but haven't read any of his books for a while..Unfortunately it seems all the bookrings I've joined have come home to roost at once, so it may be a couple of weeks before I read it...I'll try not to hang on to it for too long :0)

15/10/05 - Starting on this today..sorry, sorry , sorry for the delay..Will get it on to the next participant asap

22/10/05 Whilst I am quite enjoying this ( I'm about halfway through) it's not really grabbing my attention and consequently is taking me ages to read.So, I decided last night that rather than hold it up longer I'm sending it on to emily today..thanks for giving me the opportunity to read it.

Received safely by post - thanks sunlightbub and sorry for the delay in me journalling, have been a little distracted recently.

I didn't like any of the characters throughout most of the book, particularly the main character, which meant I wasn't really enthralled ... but I liked the ending and the way the book was written.

It's here! I'm very curious about this and will delve into it as soon as I've finished The Road Home.

I didn't quite expect this to be so funny, especially the first part, up to Amy. I'm glad I was in bed with my husband and not in the train with strangers when I got to the bit about the Paul Newman's My Own Salad Dressing, and again the Tenerife hotel (and especially bathroom) incidents - I giggled until the tears ran down my cheeks. Then when we got to Sally it became more serious (I have to admit I glossed over the Kierkergaard extracts); of all the characters I felt she was the one Tubby understood the least and she came across as rather boring. Tubby himself seemed a kind, generous and trusting person despite his absent-mindedness and self-absorption; his relationship with Maureen was touching. The whole thing is very well observed, I can identify with the IDK (Internal Disorder of the Knee) as I get the occasional twinge myself, and it brought back memories of fumblings and over-protective parents in the 1950s (well, with me it was the 1960s but we hadn't got much further). When a lad walked me home from youth club I was always aware of our front room curtains twitching and my mother looking out for me. Aha, a therapeutic trip down memory lane?
Ready to send on to xula. Thanks nice-cup-of-tea, I wouldn't have read this without your nudge...

Aargh, I can't pass over the mistake in the French translation: Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port is "at the foot of the port" not "of the pass" which would be Pied-de-Col.

mailed it to xula, December 13

just recived.. thanks!

This bookring seems to be stalled. I today pmed xula who replied to say that she will post the book this week.

Just emailed xula again to check whether book has been posted to Anna1000 yet

I've tried to read this book but I'm not going to finish it. I'll send to the lastone when I have her adress

Still waiting for xula to return the book to me, as agreed in a pm on April 29th. I have pmed again today, asking for the book to be posted back to me.

I didn't forget to send this book. Some friend decided to read it. She travel to the USA and send it there. Maybe in two weeks would back to nice-cup-of-tea

Well, I think this book is well and truly gone :-( What a shame, my first bookring to go astray... Not impressed xula...

I have bought a new copy so that the last reader can enjoy the book. Click here for replacement bookring