Welcome to The Lost Book!

The Lost Book is a collaborative adventure in storytelling. It’s taking place online and anyone can join in. At its heart is an animated web series: the adventures of 21st century investigative journalist, and BookCrosser, Aileen Adler. Episode 2, the first of five episodes to be written by the public, was launched on Friday 06 March 2009. It sees intrepid Scottish journalist Aileen and her dog Watson travelling to Iowa City in search of a stolen book and a secret society of bibliophiles - watch the story so far.

Where the story goes next remains in your hands. You can suggest plot developments by visiting www.thelostbook.net now. Each month between now and July the storylines will be pulled together into the next episode, animated and published online.

There are loads of ways you can get involved and it won’t cost you anything. You can help us to write the story for the web series. You can join our special guest writer Jasper Fforde to reconstruct a stolen book in our weekly microstory competition. You can enter our soundtrack competition by creating your own music for the web series. You can produce your own animation. During March 2009, you can even enter our cupcake competition and have your cupcake featured in the animation!

And, you can read this book, tell us what you thought of it, give it away, and follow its journey.

The Lost Book is a partner project to the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust’s 2009 reading campaign, The Lost World Read 2009, which is using free books, online resources and events to get people reading The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. The Lost World Read is the largest collaborative reading project ever seen in the UK. We're extending the reading campaign, thanks to the generosity of project sponsors Canongate, by giving away other free books throughout The Lost Book.

Buddha Da is a charming study of family relationships, and how people close to us react when we change, all written in Glaswegian Scots with the three narrators' individual voices shining through. It was shortlisted for both the Orange Prize and the Whitbread First Novel Award. This is a gorgeous new repackaged edition.

So join in, wherever you are, and have fun!

This book is going to travel around the world as a bookray. PM at any time, with your shipping preferences, to join. Shipping info: standard-sized paperback, 250g.

Bookray
wanderingstar8 UK (Int)
karen07814 UK (Int)
Hayes13 Italy (Int)
bookguide Netherlands (Int)
mrbaggins1 South Africa (Int)
Bug2004 US (US only)
Rrrcaron US (US preferred, Int if needed)
Shroffland US (US preferred, Int if needed)
rebeccaljames US (US preferred) - asked to be skipped
twinkpuddin US (US preferred, Int if needed)
mssaver US (Int assumed)
BouncingFerret US (Int assumed)

Bookray complete!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This is travelling to wanderingstar8 in London on the first leg of its journey. Happy reading, wanderingstar8, and everyone else! We've enclosed The Lost Book postcards for everyone, hope you like them.

Just arrived - how exciting to have a brand new book. Looking forward to reading it...

This is a story about what happens when a working-class Glaswegian discovers Buddhism. He finds increasing inner peace, but as always, there's a conflict between his growing wish to withdraw from the world and conquer his desires, and all of his responsibilities to the rest of his family.

The story is told alternately by Jimmy, his wife Liz and daughter Anne Marie, and we can be sympathetic to each one as they tell their story, while recognising the wrong turns they are taking.

Buddha Da successfully takes a light-hearted approach to deal with some pretty serious issues. The story, at times, is a little bit pat, but it was a charming and enjoyable read.

On its way...

arrived safely, thank you

Excellent read once I'd mastered the language. Thoroughly enjoyed the simplicity of the narrative. Having just read a heartrending true account it was very welcome. Now off to Rome

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

over to you

This arrived today, and I'm not sure how! I found it in the lobby of the building, next to the mailboxes, no envelope, no name, no nothing. Hmmmm... will have to ask Buddha for a little divine intervention so that I can remain calm when I go to ask at the post office.

Naturally the Lost Book Post Cards were no longer with the book... grrr!

Can't wait to read it. Thank you.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

A gentle story, written in Glasgow dialect. Jimmy, a regular guy, decides to become a Buddhist and each member of the family has to deal with the change. It comes apart a little at the end, but it's so good in so many ways.

Best quote:
(Jimmy's wife, 12-year-old daughter (Anne Marie) and mother-in-law are doing a jigsaw puzzle together)

'... By the way, where's Jimmy?'
'In the bedroom,' ah said.
'Meditatin,' said Anne Marie.
'He done it last night.' ...
'He does it every night, Gran.'
'Every night? How?'
'He likes it,' said Anne Marie.
'He's sumpn else.'
'Each to his ain,' ah said.
'Aye,' said Anne Marie. 'Some folk like meditatin, some prefer EastEnders.'

Sending this gem on to its next home. (sorry I took so long!!)

I just LOVED this book and I hope you will too.

Arrived two days ago, but I'm afraid I hadn't managed to journal it yet. Sorry about the delay. I've been madly registering books to take with me for a BookCrossing stall in remembrance of Yellow-Star at a fundraising event for a cancer charity, the Samenloop voor Hoop (Running Together for Hope) in Veldhoven on June 6th and 7th.

I will read this book as soon as I can, but I have a backlog of ringbooks at the moment, so it will go on the windowsill with the others. Check on my profile to see how I'm getting on with my ringbook flood; international rings usually have special privileges!

Thank you so much for letting me read this! I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was surprisingly easy to read, given it was written in Glesga dialect, and I come from just about as far away in Great Britain as it's possible to go, namely East Kent. I do have a couple of friends from Glesga and thereabouts, so I've noticed some of the differences in language before, but they don't tend to use real dialect words - the accent's difficult enough to understand!

The words and phrases that made me think:
"rubber gloves up tae her oxters" - are 'oxters' armpits? If so, that's similar to Dutch 'oksel'!
The baby's "crumpled wee pink face, keekin out fae the covers" - The Dutch word to look is 'kijken' (pronounced kye-ken), which in some dialects is pronounced kee-ken!
"Ah hadnae a scooby whit he wis on aboot" - at first I thought that 'scooby' was a dialect word, but inspiration came to me suddenly, and I realised it was rhyming slang, 'scooby doo' for 'clue', which gave me an unexpected insight into the name of the cartoon dog! Is there a specific Glasgow rhyming slang, or is it Cockney?
I wondered what tenements covered with "stour" were (p.314), and what is a "clarty mess" (p.317).
I also learned the Glasga word for crying is 'greetin' (past tense 'grat'), so I wonder where that came from.

I loved the story itself; a good everyday story of working class life in a big city. The three separate voices of Jimmy, Liz and Anne Marie were handled very successfully, and allowed each to express their feelings as an individual. The description of the family calendar rang a bell with me, as we have a similar dichotomy of characters in our family:
"Ma mammy's got this calendar in the kitchen and everythin gets written doon on it. of course ma da always forgets and he'll say he's gaun oot somewhere or he's workin late or sumpn then ma ma says she disnae know. 'But ah tellt you,' he'll say and she'll say, 'it's no on the calendar.' (p.92)

It did also occur to me that it was ironic that while Jimmy is immersing himself in the Eastern religion of Buddhism, and Madonna is musically tapping into the East and dabbling in Kabbalism as a religion, the Glasgow-born Sikh Nisha speaks Glasgow dialect and enjoys music by Madonna. Anne Marie and Nisha work together to make a CD sampling a Christian piece in Latin, a Buddhist chant by Tibetan monks and Punjabi music; how symbolic of the "melting pot" of a big city where different cultures can not only survive peacefully next to each other, but mix successfully and learn from each other. The ideal world, often achieved on an individual basis, but not always on a larger scale, unfortunately.

Hi bookguide - thanks for the great review. A few answers to your questions about Scots. Yep, oxters are armpits – how interesting that it’s similar to the Dutch! There is a Glasgow rhyming slang that differs from the Cockney variety – well spotted on scooby. Stour has several meanings, but in that context it’s probably dust/dirt. The verb form means to fly up like dust or spray. Clarty is just a word for dirty or filthy – a filthy mess. I’ve no idea where "to greet" comes from – you’ll find it in Burns and Scott, so it’s been around a while!

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

This book has been released as part of the following BookCrossing challenges:
- The Ultimate Challenge - read and release books, with extra points for a monthly theme
- Pages Read Challenge - read a self-set target number of pages in 2009. My goal is 25000.

Arrived today together with three other BX books just when I thought I was up to date! Oh dear. The book was wrapped in a dutch local newspaper - Afrikaans is my home language and it's quite interesting to read about "Buurtbewoners grijpen autokraker" - Neighbours nabs car burglars. Interesting part is that the burglars took off on bicycles.

Thanks for sharing

This was a great read, the accents-writing was a bit difficult to follow at the beginning but once I got into the rhytm of the language it was a great read. A charming humane plot, about love drifting apart for the weirdest reasons.....put I don't want to spoil the story. Imaigine Buddists talking with a broad Scottish accent.

Thanks for sharing - contacting Bug2004 to send it on

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Posting today by surface mail to Bug2004 in the US. Thanks for sharing and enjoy!

Arrived safely.

Phew! This book wore me out! I had a tough time w/ the dialect, although it started to roll fairly smoothly little less than half way through. Great fun, though!

So sorry for the delay! I will do my best to get this to the post in the next couple of days, however, we currently have ice covered roads w/ more snow set to fall starting this evening! Ugh! Hopefully by the weekend, at the latest, this will be hitting the chilly road!

**Mailed off yesterday...1/15**

I received this book in the mail today. I have a read in progress, but will get to this one soon.
Ruth

This ended up being a delightful story! I had a little trouble with the dialect at first, but it got easier as it went on. I was really impressed with the decision Jimmy made at the end, kind of like full circle.Passing on to next reader. Thanks so much for sharing this book.

This just arrived, and I'm excited to read it! I have a feeling I might be speaking Glaswegian before long :-)

I'll keep you all posted on my progress.

An Update: I plan to be able to send this out to the next reader by the end of the week! rebeccasljames asked to be skipped, so will PM twinkpuddin for an address today.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

What a delight! I particularly enjoyed the idea of the influence of other cultures - Eastern philosophy, American pop culture, Asian pop culture, European, American, and Asian food - on the traditional Catholic, parochial culture of working class Glasgow, and how they all blend and enrich one another. I also liked the depiction of different people simply seeking to get the most and best out of life - meaning, happiness, and peace.

On its way now to twinkpuddin in California.

Received! Am in the middle of another book, then will jump right into this one.

Like those before me, I too had some trouble with the dialect at first. Really had to use my brain for awhile there. But if was fun to read once I was able to roll with that. Enjoyed bookguide and TheLostBook's notes on some of the words & phrases - those were a lot of the same ones I was thinking about.

Have PM'd mssaver and will get the book moving as soon as I can! Thanks for sharing!

Sent out to mssaver today!

It's here! I'm in the middle of another book and very busy, but I should be able to send this one on in a few weeks, assuming someone will be waiting for it.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Sad to say, I've been to Scotland only once and not to Glasgow at all, but so far as I know, I've about 3/8 Scottish ancestry. I'm not "greetin," though. Interestingly enough, when I saw "greet" in the book, I looked it up in an American dictionary (Merriam-Webster), and sure enough they showed one definition as "Scot: weep, lament." Now the book is on its way to BouncingFerret.

So, I got this in the mail a couple of days ago, and i thank you very much.
The problem is that I can't stand the language used and can hardly read it.. "He'd dae anything for a laugh so he wid" I get it, but there is no way I can read an entire book with that language, feel like my IQ will fall or something. haha. It's a shame cause the description sounded very interesting..
Anyway, I'm about to message the next person on the list. Hope others can enjoy it tons and thanks again. :)

EDIT: Just noticed I'm last on the list? Would the person who started the ray like it back? I'll keep checking to see if anyone is added, regardless.

sent to a non-bookcrossing member per request of footymadgill
:)

Thank you BouncingFerrett for sending to my friend. It has arrived safe and sound and she was thrilled by your kind offer. x