I'm a great Palahniuk fan and I want more people to read his work so here goes I’m sending this copy out as an International book ring.. hopefully there’ll be quite a few of you interested, if you are please PM me with postal preferences.

The order is:
Stephen-1702 (Belgium)
intrycksflikka (Finland)
darkdreamer (????)
SillySilhouette (Ohio, USA)
dospescados skipped
literarylover (Florida, USA)
gategypsy (Yukon, Canada) skipped
junegirl (Wisconsin, USA) - moved to end after me!
thescreaming (Maryland, USA)
cinnycat (New York, USA)
SqueakyChu (Rockville, USA)
FutureCat (Canterbury, New Zealand) skipped
Finally back to stubee (UK)

The bookring has made it's way home, thanks to everyone who took part.

detailista (Newcastle-upon-tyne, UK) - removed inactive bookcrosser
cnfotp (Northamptonshire, UK) - removed inactive bookcrosser
junegirl (Wisconsin, USA) - removed for the time being as they're too busy to read

No answer from darkdreamer so I contacted Stephen-1702, he responded almost immediatley so it's on it's way to him first. As a result darkdreamer moves down acouple of places.

Arrived this morning. Can hardly wait to start reading ... .

Arrived yesterday. Will start reading it tonight :) Looks like a great read!

From Publishers Weekly
The rise and fall of a media-made messiah is the subject of Palahniuk's impressive second novel (after the well-received Fight Club), a wryly mannered commentary on the excesses of pop culture that tracks the 15 minutes of fame of the lone living member of a suicide cult. Tender Branson, aged 33, has commandeered a Boeing 747, emptied of passengers, in order to tell his story to the "black box" while flying randomly until the plane runs out of gas and crashes. Branson relates in his long flashback the vicissitudes of his life: a member of the repressive Creedish Death Cult, supposedly founded by a splinter group of Millerites in 1860, he is hired out as a domestic servant who must dedicate his earnings to the cult. Despite his humble beginnings, Branson finds himself on the edge of fame and fortune when the cult members begin their suicide binge, and he keeps himself on the media radar by using the psychic dreams of his potential romantic interest, Fertility Hollis, in which the girl accurately predicts a series of strange disasters. After a brief period at the top of the freak-show heap, Branson succumbs to the excesses of his trade when his agent mysteriously dies at the Super Bowl as Branson predicts the outcome of the game at half-time, simultaneously triggering a riot and turning him into a murder suspect. Branson's spookily matter of fact account of his bizarre experiences does not excite tension until the narrative is well under way, but the novel picks up momentum during the homestretch when Branson goes on the lam with Fertility and his murderous brother Adam, and the story steamrolls toward its nightmarish climax. Palahniuk's DeLilloesque cultural witticisms and his satirical take on the culture of instant celebrity invest the narrative with a dark humor that does not quite overcome its lack of a coherent plot. Agent, Edward Hibbert. (Feb.) FYI: Fight Club is being filmed by David Fincher.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Read the book about a week ago, but somehow it just follows me. I really enjoyed it. Was a bit confusing at the start, but well reading it for a while I fell in love with it. SURVIVOR begins on its final page, and shoots backwards towards page 1, always reminding you of its approaching demise. I think that the author is one of the most fresh author in fiction today. If you have not yet read one of his books then "Survivor" is the perfect place to start. It is witty and funny and yet remarkably insightful.

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mailed the book to darkdreamer 26 May 2006

returned home, I'm in the process of getting SillySilhouette's address and then I'll be sending this back out on the road.

EDIT: Posted on Saturday 3rd Feb 2007!

Poor postman! I'm glad that he didn't take any unnecessary risks trying to deliver our mail. After 4 or 5 days had passed without us receiving anything (no news is good news, right?), it finally occurred to me that there might be a problem. Going outside, we quickly discovered a treacherous pile of ice on our walkway that was about 3 - 4 inches (7.62 - 10.16 centimeters) thick. -It was hiding under a thin blanket of snow. YIKES!

Thanks for including me on your ring! I'll journal my thoughts once I finally get to page one...

This book started out a little "rough" and a little "dark" for me. However, I ended up really enjoying it.

Being a "literal thinker", I didn't pick up on any deep satirical meaning. Furthermore, I certainly didn't find any part of it to be funny. Nevertheless, this was a good, quick, and unique read!

Thanks again!

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UPDATE: Mailed on 2/21 to literarylover.

"Survivor" is an appropriate name for this book! Looking at the journal entries, things appear to have gone a little awry along the way. For me, I had three people "decline" until I finally had an address. -One requested to be skipped, another had a note on his/her bookshelf stating that they didn't want to participate in any more rings/rays, and the other one had asked to be moved further down the list. Whew!

Looks good, can't wait to read it. Thanks for sending!

Just finished reading it (sorry it took so long). This book, like any other Palahniuk novel, was very entertaining in an edgy kind of way. It wasn't my favorite by Palahniuk, but it was definitely worth the read.

Waiting for the address from gategypsy

gategypsy asked to be skipped so I'm contacting junegirl

Sending to junegirl today.

Received in the mail -- sorry it took me so long to journal! This will be up next after my reading group book. I've been wanting to read this for a long time.

The mailman delivered this to my crazy neighbor, she said she's had it for two weeks but kept forgetting to give it to me (although we've talked to each other numerous times since then). Looks like this book has been through postal hell judging by the other journal entries.

Anyway, I have a book to complete before this one, then I will get right on it.

I think I'm starting to fall out of love with Palahniuk, although I did like this a lot better than Lullaby (which was just flat out too freaking weird at the end). This was still a very interesting story.

Hopefully I can get this mailed out by next weekend.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I'm FINALLY getting this out tomorrow. So, so sorry for the hold up.

Of course, I have three other rings/rays in my possession right now. That always happens no matter how many I'm signed up for. Will get to this one soon! Been looking forward to it for a while now. thanks so much for sharing this, stubee and thescreaming for sending.

This was a lot more straight forward than the other Palahniuk's I have read (Diary, Fight Club, and Lullaby)-- a lot less confusing I think. I liked the plot but I don't think Palahniuk had to be so extreme to get his point across but being extreme is his thing, I know. I loved the stealing fake flowers from a mausoleum and hitching rides in ready made homes down the highway. I'm not sure if I was supposed to be sympathetic to Tender's character because of a certain thing he does in the beginning of the book (I won't say what it is because it will probably be off-putting to any future readers) but I didn't think it was necessary, even if I wasn't supposed to be sympathetic to Tender! I liked this for a Palahniuk book, but I think Palahniuk is a talented enough writer not to go to such extremes. Not as great as Fight Club though!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

On it's way!

Got the book today, Thank you, stubee, for sharing this book with me, and thank you cinnycat for mailing it to me. I'll make sure it's the next book I read.

FutureCat already got her hands on a copy of this book and asked to be skipped.

I finished the book and had mixed feelings about it. I think I've read too many Palahniuk books to get very into them any more. They are all a little weird, but kind of fun. I guess it the type of formulaic writing that Palahniuk does that I growing weary of. I liked this book a little less than some (Lullaby, Invisible Monsters, Diary) and more than another (Haunted). I still have a copy of Fight Club here at home to read but probably won't get to it any time soon.

I thought the story of Survivor was entertaining in an off-the-wall kind of way. It's not a book I'd necessarily recommend to others (Diary was my favorite Palahniuk book so far), but I did like having had the chance to read it.

The bookring is now done so this book will be mailed within the next few days back to Stubee in the UK. Thanks very much for sharing your book with me.

Ok the bookring is over thanks SqueakyChu for sending this back to me and for sending me Anne Michaels's Fugitive Pieces it's very thoughtful of you.

Thanks to everyone who took part I hope you all enjoyed the book. This will now sit on my bookshelf for a while until I decide what to do with it.