Welcome to The Lost World Read 2009!

You’ve got hold of a book that is part of the UK’s largest reading campaign. We’re celebrating Arthur Conan Doyle’s 150th birthday and Charles Darwin’s bicentenary by bringing people across the UK together to read a classic adventure tale of a lost plateau, discovery and dinosaurs - The Lost World.

Investigative journalist Ed Malone joins a band of explorers sent to South America to prove that deep in the jungle there is a forgotten world where dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals still survive. What do they find - and will they make it home to tell the tale? It's the first Conan Doyle story featuring the larger-than-life Professor Challenger.

And, 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 Aileen Adler.

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.

And, you can read this book, tell us what you thought of it, give it away, and follow its journey. So join in, wherever you are, and have fun!

(Oh, and sometimes you’ll need a password to get into sections of www.thelostbook.net. Only people with a copy of this book will have the password, so these areas will be exclusive to you. The password is: the last word on page 150 of this book. Don’t forget!)

This book is going to travel to FutureCat in New Zealand, then to Nerdanel6 in spain. When Nerdanel6's finished reading the book will be wild released.

If you've picked it up - welcome to BookCrossing! I hope you enjoy The Lost World and then pass it on to continue its journey. It'd be great to find out where it has travelled to and read your review. You can stay completely anonymous if you prefer, or you can join BookCrossing (it's free) if you'd like to take part in this booklovers' community.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Travelling to FutureCat in New Zealand. Happy reading!

Arrived safely in NZ today, along with a few friends :-)

Thanks! I'm looking forward to reading it.

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I wasn't exactly sure what to expect with this book. I of course vaguely knew about the theme from various bad movie adaptations, but the only Arthur Conan Doyle I'd read before were some of his Sherlock Holmes stories, so I was uncertain how his dry style would marry with a fantasy about dinosaurs.

So the actual book was a pleasant revelation - a great adventure story, with some reasonably valid (for the time) science behind it. I did have a moment of doubt when the ape-men and other prehistoric mammals were introduced, wondering if Conan Doyle could really have messed up so badly as to think them contemporaneous with dinosaurs, but I shouldn't have worried, as the seeming anachronism was duly noted by the characters and a plausible explanation advanced.

Fascinating too to note the comments about photos being able to be faked, an issue still relevant to modern photographs of UFOs and Bigfoot. It's also interesting in relation to Conan Doyle's fascination with the Cottingley fairy photographs.

Thanks for the chance to read a book I probably would have otherwise overlooked!

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Just checking in to let you know I am safe and sound. I am having a nice visit with Nerdanel here in Spain before continuing on my travels. I hope you’re having as much fun as I am!

With Great Affection,

Your Book :-)


Hello,
This little friend has finally arrived in my hands Yesterday (I already believe that there was a problem with the international shipping, but fortunately this is).

Thanks! I will start to read once I finish my exams. Then I´ll release it near Santiago´s Path.

Best wishes,
Nerdanel ;P

I can't believe it took me so long to manage to end this book but I finally did it. Well worth the wait. You all probably know what it is about and anyway the plot is simple: somewhere in South America lies a plateau remote from the rest of the world wherein dwell all manner of prehistoric creatures. A group of adventurers and scientists travelled to the Lost World and end up fighting for their lives against all manner of monstruous creatures.

Thanks to those who shared the book with people like me who were not in one of the cities who took part the the Lost Word Reading event.

I will leave this book at the Pilgrims' Hostel.

Enjoy it!

I will leave it in the rack that exists for leaflets close to the bicycles.

Good hunt!