From a review somewhere: William Golding's classic tale about a group of English schoolboys who are plane-wrecked on a deserted island is just as chilling and relevant today as when it was first published in 1954. At first, the stranded boys cooperate, attempting to gather food, make shelters, and maintain signal fires. Overseeing their efforts are Ralph, "the boy with fair hair," and Piggy, Ralph's chubby, wisdom-dispensing sidekick whose thick spectacles come in handy for lighting fires. Although Ralph tries to impose order and delegate responsibility, there are many in their number who would rather swim, play, or hunt the island's wild pig population. Soon Ralph's rules are being ignored or challenged outright. His fiercest antagonist is Jack, the redheaded leader of the pig hunters, who manages to lure away many of the boys to join his band of painted savages. The situation deteriorates as the trappings of civilization continue to fall away, until Ralph discovers that instead of being hunters, he and Piggy have become the hunted: "He forgot his words, his hunger and thirst, and became fear; hopeless fear on flying feet." Golding's gripping novel explores the boundary between human reason and animal instinct, all on the brutal playing field of adolescent competition.

Participants so far:
kalahari - Portugal
MSO - Portugal
bookmanu - Portugal
Witchie - Portugal
blacksheeps99 - Austria
roadrunner - USA
tsmith51632 - USA
chocolatefishy - USA
fsr44 - USA
heliz922 - USA
Sunshinedreem - USA
beautyredefined -USA
bilbi - France
lim1bd - UK
Scrawler - Poland
DianeO - England
lauraloo29 - Canada
BrookeH - USA
Guadi - Portugal
Fire-Dragon - UK
prollacct - USA
juhturo - Hungary

Travelling together with John Steinbeck: Of Mice and Men, it began it's journey at my local post office yesterday, September 15th. It's on it's way to kalahari in Portugal.

It has arrived! Thank you, Majosim, for the postcard. :) I've already tried to send a few, but the post officers never let me - they say the cheap rate allows ONLY the book... :\

I'll try to read as soon as I can and then send it on its way.

WOW! Great book!

The review Majosim put in his journal entry resumes the story pretty well. It is astonishing to follow all the changes in the boys' behaviour. It's even kind of scary to see them turn into savages...

It's not the first time I've read/seen a film about this subject. And they always end up the same way. Are we really like this? Is there pure savagery beneath a surface of civilization, waiting to appear in extreme situations? I wouldn't like to think so - not sure though...

For further reading about Lord of the Flies click here.

Release planned for Monday, October 20, 2003 at Enviado por correio in Loures, Loures Portugal.

The bookray will continue its journey - it'll meet MSO. Enjoy! :)

Update Oct 23: Only today I was able to go to the post office. Sorry for the delay...

já chegou as minhas prateleiras e vou começar a ler mal seja possivel.
Obrigado kalahari

This is a great book that shows us the real human being .

Released on Sunday, January 12, 2003 at CCT in Loures, Loures Portugal.

ja a muito tempo mas esqueçi me de fazer

I received this book a long time ago. No matter how many times I tried reading it, I just couldn't 'get' into it.

It's a pity because 'The Lord of the Flies' is one of the 'great classics' of English literature...perhaps I should get hold of the movie!

The book is now on its way to Witchie. Mailed from the Linda-a-Velha post office on 19 April '04

Sincerest apologies to all concernened for the delay.

Just got it, yesterday! It's waiting its turn, on my TBR pile! More news soon!

I finished this book before going away, on vacation (sorry for posting so late...). I really liked it and I particularly enjoyed the psychological analysis (psychologic/psychanalitic) in the end. I think the book is a great metaphore (is this how it is spelled?...) of the human society so, as a future psychologist, I particularly enjoyed it!
Thanks a lot, Majosim, for sharing this with us. I think I'll probably re-read it in my mother language because I think I lost a bit. The english is a little to advanced for me, sometimes. I got the story, but didn't really enjoyed the literary side. But thank you so much! I'll be sending it along as soon as possible!

This book is finally on its way to blacksheeps99. I'm sorry for taking so long, but I was sick and hospitalized and this last two months were really bad. But I'm ok now and I'm getting everything back on tracks. As the rings and rays I have delayed (so sorry for that, onde again). Hope the book gets to its destiny safe and fast!

Book arrived yesterday - thanks so much - looking forward to read it. (And I hope you´re feeling better :-))

Oh my god! I can´t believe I kept this book for such a long time! Sorry!! December was very stressfull!

I enjoyed reading this book a lot - another classic I can tick off my list :-)

Will be off to the UK as soon as I´ll get Dianes Adress!

I couldn´t make contact to DianeO ==> the book goes to the US now, it will be posted to roadrunner tomorrow.

Sorry for this long delay!!

This arrived yesterday, much to my surprise! I had completely forgotten that I had signed up for this. This little book has been everywhere! I'm currently reading a very long bookring but will get to this asap.

I don't rate too many books a ten but this one certainly deserves it. I could not put this book down. I know I read this in high school but I definitely did not appreciate it. I think the violence in this book was pretty understated which made it even scarier for me. No long, drawn out blood and guts scenes, just building suspense and a feeling of things going out of control. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to read this again with my adult eyes. GREAT book. Thanks, Majosim for sharing.

This is off today via Media Mail to fsr44. Chocolatefishy asked to be skipped. This book is in a somewhat delicate condition but it still has a few reads left.

It seems everyone else read this one in high school, but somehow it passed me by. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to "catch up". I have a book in front of it, and then I'll read this one and speed it on its way.

This reads very much like the kind of book you'd be assigned to read in high school (which I suppose is appropriate). It was OK, but I don't know how long it will stay with me. What's funny is that the island reminded me of the creepy island setting of part of Life of Pi.
I'll PM the next reader and send it off as soon as I get an addy.

Sending to heliz922.

This arrived yesterday--perfect timing, I had just finished my last one. I just started it this morning, I'll finish it and pass it on asap.

I finished reading this morning...From a symbolic point of view, I think there was quite a bit that I missed...A lot of the metaphors used in the book seemed rather obvious (eg., Piggy's specs as a symbol of wisdom and reason), but I would like to read more in depth into all of it. For some reason, it reminded me quite a bit of Orwell's 'Animal Farm'.

I will be sending this on to it's next reader as soon as I get their address. :)

Received today, and as always it's the 2nd bookring to arrive in 2 days! It shouldn't take me more than a few days to get started on this though. I'll journal again when I begin reading.

I got this safely a few days ago and am about halfway through it. Sorry for not journaling right away, but we just moved and haven't got broadband set up yet! So far, I sometimes find it hard to follow who's speaking sometimes, and the first few pages are starting to fall out - I may try to add more tape before I send it on...

Well, this is now on its way to bilbi in France for another leg of its journey.

Warning - some spoilage!


I really can't tell what I thought of this book - I guess I just don't want to believe it could happen that like, that humans are inherently better than the savages portrayed here. I'm not trying to be naive, I mean, I believe that there would be bitter fighting, but to the point of death? Really. As noted before, in some of the conversations, it's also unclear who's talking. I wonder why Piggy doesn't tell Ralph his real name. Anyway, this book will make you stop and think about human nature, and it's probably worth reading, but I don't feel a deep need to read it again. There is an awful lot of symbolism here, and I'm sure I didn't understand every connection Golding was trying to make, but such is life.

Anyway, thanks for sharing Majosim! I'm glad I finally sat down to read such a "classic." Now at least I'll be able to understand other culture references to it. :)

Got it today by mail ! I can start it almost right now : I'm on holiday !!!! This seems to be a well-travelled book so far !
Thank you majosim for sharing it and beautyredefined, that's a pretty screen name !

It's really a great book ! There's impending death and violence. Golding creates a really nasty atmosphere.
A microcosm of humanity ? I think it's the kind of book you put down with a weird feeling, wondering whether you would have chosen to be Ralph's or Jack's supporter...
Thank you for sharing the book :*

Arrived today. I'm in the midst of another ring, but I will keep this one moving. Thank you!

Update October 11th - I've just begun this book. Just under 200 pages, should be finished before the end of the week.

I read this way back in high school. Or at least I thought I had. I know I did a report on it. :) Now that I've read and thought about it...... impressive. Probably most interesting is that this book was written in the 1950's and I could see it happening today. People are still the same. I would love a sequel to this book to see what happened as the boys grew up.

I'm borrowing the movie from the library (actually there is a 1960's version and a more recent version, I'm going to watch both). I'm interested to see how the book was interpreted.

I'm going to try and get this little book in the mail tomorrow to the next person, but for sure on October 17th. :) Thank you for sharing!

Update - Oct 23 - I watched the 1963 black and white movie. A very good adaptation. Stark.

Update - Oct 29 - I watched the 1990 movie. Disappointing. The boys are now American and from a military school, some with difficult backgrounds. I was more annoyed with this Piggy than sympathetic. Jack was altogether meaner. There was also far-too-much, unnecessary (in my opinion) cursing from young boys. Disturbing to me, as the original book had no need for this.

What a great book. It seemed like an easy read but there was so much to it! I wish I had read it in high school.