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 sonia23 in the USA, then to KiwiinEngland in Ireland. When KiwiinEngland'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 sonia23 in the USA. Happy reading!

This book is lost!!

Only an empty envelope, marked "received unsealed", arrived with sonia23.

So, where's the book? If you've discovered it somewhere within the postal system, lost and separated from its envelope, we'd be overjoyed to hear from you: we don't need the book back, but we'd love to know it's safe with you. Please read it, enjoy it, and perhaps pass it on for someone else to read!

This book has washed ashore at the Lost Book Island after not being heard from for many months. This new arrival will be shown to a room and be allowed a bit of rest before being introduced to the many fun things to do here at the island.

All around there are books sipping cool drinks under shady palms while other books participate in a wide variety of beach sports. There is plenty of sand, surf and sun here for all of the lost and wayward books to enjoy.

It is hoped that very soon a new journal entry will come to rescue this book from the island and send it back out into the BookCrossing world so that it may continue on its journey. It is hoped that the new journal entry will tell all the interested parties where this book has been this long time and where it will be traveling to next.