My copy of this book has a slightly different cover.

This was an interesting book that I received as a Christmas gift from my sister Gumshoe007. A very clever concept, which maybe burned itself out by the end. It's a novel written in letters. As a result, I found the author sometimes had to twist his writing to fit the format and he could only present characters' thoughts to the extent that they'd actually write them in a letter to another person. As such, it felt a little hollow at times. That sounds all bad, which this book isn't. It's about an imaginary island off the east coast of the U.S., a nation state founded on the alphabet and a very special sentence. I won't write too much more so that I don't give anything away. This is a first novel by Mark Dunn, who apparently is usually a playwright. I wondered if that partly explained some of the awkward writing. A play and a book are fairly different, no? I'm curious to know what others think of Ella Minnow Pea.

Release planned for Tuesday, January 21, 2003 at Mailing to a fellow BookCrosser in Montreal, Quebec Canada.

I plan to mail this tomorrow to mojosmom in Chicago in exchange for a book she is mailing me.

LATER: I just got back from the post office and thought I'd post an end note. I like to decorate my packages when I'm sending a book so the recipient gets a pleasant surprise. There's a big, burly, friendly francophone man in his 50s who works at my neighbourhood post office who is always really patient. I asked him if I could please have pretty stamps instead of the usual plain sticker that they print off for parcels. He pulled six of the biggest stamps I have ever seen from a new Canadian stamp set called "NHL ALL-STARS/ÉTOILES DE LA LNH". The package was not very big and it was already fairly full with the address and some stickers I'd stuck on at home. Slowly he found a place to put each stamp and then he said, "That's $2.88. We've got $1.44 to go." He's so slow and methodical and didn't seem to care at all about the long line that was forming. He looked around in his drawer to find other pretty stamps that would add up to $1.44, slowly stuck them all on, added extra "Small Package" and customs stickers, then pulled out a big ink stamp and got to work ink stamping each and every stamp. By the time he was done, the package was pretty much covered in its entirety with Canada's greatest NHL stars and other assorted pictures. He finally looked up at me with a big smile on his face and said in the thickest, most classic Quebecois accent, "Well! I sure 'ope she likes 'ockey!"

I have to say that the whole thing really made my day. Hope you enjoy it as much I did, mojosmom!

This looks like fun! It good to see that the epistolary novel has not gone completely out of fashion. The cover says: ". . . the Island's Council . . . has banned the use of certain letters of the alphabet as they fall from a memorial statue . . . As the letters progressively drop form the statue they also disappear from the novel." An interesting conceit - I'm curious how it will work out. Will let you all know what I think.

Now, I must also say a word about the wonderful package this came in. Not just hockey, but crafts, a loon, a banana with eyes and a rocket!! Not to mention the cute little rabbit on idioteqnician's return address sticker! AWESOME! See it here: packagephoto

I really like this book! I know what idioteqnician means, and there are times that the book seem a bit forced, but since it involves pangrams and is a progressively lipogrammatic epistolary novel, that's understandable. In all, a delightful and clever parable about censorship and truth.

I will hang on to this one just for a bit longer. It is giving me an idea for my contribution to the Chicago Hand Bookbinders' Alphabet Book that we do every year for the Printers' Row Book Fair.
Chicago Hand Bookbinders

Released on Monday, April 14, 2003 at Controlled Release in Chicago, Illinois USA.

Sent on to debnance in a trade, with hopes that she will have as much fun with it as I did.

Yippee! I can't wait to read this book! I will be interested to see how it compares to The Phantom Tollbooth. (I must say...I don't think I've ever read such extensive and illuminating journaling for a book I've received from anyone! In addition, you provided such lovely illustrations! Thank you! And, also, thank you, mojosmom, for the beautiful and theme-appropriate bookmark!) And now...I must finish up the book I'm reading and begin this book!

For anyone who loves words and letters and sounds and phrases...clever story about an island where the sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" and its author, Nevin Nollop, are revered...terrible things begin to happen when letters start to fall from a memorial statue of Nollop....

Release planned for Monday, May 05, 2003 at U.S. Mail in US Mail, Texas USA.

Mailing this off to a book friend as a little surprise! :-) Hope she enjoys it!

I received this book from a wonderful gal named Debbie, who knew I wanted to read this. In addition to the book, she sent along a darling bookmark with the word "alphabet" in calligraphy on the front. How appropriate!! I have started this clever little fable and am half way through. I was orginally put off a bit by all the "big words" but have settled into the story nicely and hope to finish it within a few days. I'll post again when I finish.

I've finished reading Ella Minnow Pea. As someone else has mentioned, the premise of the story does get a bit stale after a while but it was an entertaining read for the most part. I've read better, I've read worse.

I'm sending "Ella" off to an online friend who is interested in reading it. I hope she enjoys it!

In a previous entry, I said, "It is giving me an idea for my contribution to the Chicago Hand Bookbinders' Alphabet Book." Last night, I finished the books (it's an edition of two; we raffle one set off, and donate the other to the Joan Flasch Artists' Book Collection). I did a Jacob's Ladder, in four segments, with a different pangram on each. The pangram is repeated 26 times, and is set out on the page so that you read the alphabet in a vertical line, highlighted in red. It's very cool. (I'm into funky book structures.)

I received this book in a box with a traveling book I am reading with my online group of friends. I will read this book and post how I feel about it at a later date. I like the idea of BookCrossing and plan on doing more of this.

I finished the book today and really enjoyed it. I found it hard to read towards the end because of the phonetic spelling but once I loosened my English-usage conceptions and allowed the letters to mesh into words that meant something I found it fun. I love the ending and wasn't disappointed at all. I will be passing this book along to a fellow BookCrosser who lives here in town and is an avid releaser of books.

Released on Wednesday, September 10, 2003 at Toad Mountain Coffee Shop on Dupont in Bellingham, Washington USA.

I passed this on to another BC'er at our first meeting today!

This book sounded intriguing -- asked for it and ending up meeting a fellow BookCrosser and getting several other books and conversation. I'm planning to read this soon, and send it an exchange with someone in England.

Well, despite the long list of positive comments about this book, I really DID NOT like it. I did not laugh. I did not smile. I just kept thinking "oh, for heaven's sake!" And I realize how stuffy this sounds, but since the only thing with the tiniest bit of reality or interest was the fascist government, the book made me uncomfortable while it seemed to be about nothing at all.

Rather than send it on to England in exchange for books I actually want, I've offered it as a Book Relay. It will probably continue to accumulate glowing reviews. Ah well, to each his own.....

I received this book on Friday Oct. 31st - thanks! I am definitely intrigued by this book and look forward to reading it.

An enjoyable, silly little book. I can somehow see it becoming a mandatory high school English Lit. read.

This little book is now off to Texas, USA, into the hands of fellow bookcrosser jendudley. Enjoy!

I am sooo looking forward to this book. Very excited, it looks really great. Thanks Ella-Mae!

This was an awesome book. I loved the language. I plan on looking into some more Mark Dunn books...if they exist! This book will continue travelling as I recieved a PM requesting it from a fellow Bcer. I hope they like it as much as I did!

Sent to countedx58

Just caught this as a RABCK from fellow BookCrosser jendudley. THANKS! :)

I really liked this book. I think enough's been said about it in previous journal entries, so I'll just add my eight-star rating. I plan to offer it at the next local Meetup in April.

Released to fellow BookCrosser ... ooh, can't remember, was it lisaxiii? ... at this evening's Meetup. I hope you enjoy it - I really did!

I got this at last month's meet up. I plan to read it soon.