This arrived yesterday, I started reading it in the train home and got up to chapter 31 - it is really hard to put down.

Back cover: "The Curious Incident... is a murder mystery novel like no other. The detective, and narrator, is Christopher Boone. Christopher is fifteen and has Asperger's Syndrome. He knows a very great deal about maths and very little about human beings. He loves lists, patterns, and the truth. He hates the colours yellow and brown and being touched. He has never gone further than the end of the road on his own, but when he finds a neighbour's dog murdered he sets out on a terrifying journey which will turn his whole world upside down."
The cover also has many congratulatory messages by other writers including Oliver Sacks. I have read several books by Sacks and also several books about autism, and this is the first where the author actually puts himself into the autist's shoes. It is fascinating to see how Christopher's mind works; we actually see the world through his eyes. Many of the critics found the book funny - I can't say I thought it was amusing in any way, rather heart-warming, though. The relationship between the parents reminds me of writing by Susan Townsend. Christopher is much better at maths than I am and is actually accepted for A level maths: his explanation of the right-angled triangle in the Appendix is as impenetrable to my mind as interpreting other people's facial expressions are to him.

I am sending this out as a bookring and have included the print-out of an interview with the author in his home in Oxford, and two short descriptions of Asperger's syndrome.
There are several blank pages after the Appendix if anyone wants to include comments.

Participants (order changed 29 Dec 2004):
LordSchizzo in Paris
kiyann in Paris
(Romanesco in Paris)
Icila Loire-Atlantique
Meso Strasbourg
plumedelapin Strasbourg
Catrionna Bordeaux
therealdrbob Nuneaton UK<-- here
gerenggat Gateshead, UK
bilbi (?) Champéry, France
michmaarufa Lyon
then back to me and I will send it to
roadrunner Texas USA

posted today by priority mail to LordSchizzo, top of the list.

Inside the back cover of the book I stuck a table concerning the problem one car, two goats (proving that Christopher is right and the mathematicians wrong). I just talked this over with my son, webmaster and computer-minded, and he has proved the converse. He goes for the 50/50 solution, because according to him, a candidate facing this problem corresponds only to one line in the table, not to all three.
It would be interesting to know what the other readers think! It is like trying to prove 1+1=3.

received ok, nice package silentmiaouw :)
i'm planning to read this one very soon !

Got it from LordSchizzo some while ago, and although I didn't get to read it right away, once I started I couldn't put it down.
It is interesting and terrible to read a book as if it was written by an autist -and truly seeing what happens in their mind. I didn't find it funny -or only a couple of times- but rather very deep and...true. Christopher understands the world as it is, purely and simply, and it is strange to see how our everyday subtelties and jokes feel strange and vain.
I thought about the car/goat problem a lot and told it to my friends; it seems that 2/3 is right, I have to admit it...That is because one has 2/3 chances to choose a goat in the first place, so when one switches, there are 2/3 chances to have the car. But obviously if you only do the test once, it is difficult to see.

Thank you so much for this great book, Silentmiaouw. I hope you don't mind if I make BCer Romanesco read it before sending it on to Icila.

The shame on me! I caught this ring while I was not registered in it. Therefore I made an effort and read it very quickly, but then... took weeks and weeks to send it to the next BCer on the ring... Absolutely sorry.

The book is great. It was a real pleasure.

I am now supposed to send it to Icila. Can you please provide her address ?

Got it from romanesco. I'll do my best and read it as soon as possible.

I just finished to read it. I got an headache with the goats and the car...
I enjoyed this book. It's hard to think how is the life in a pure logical selfish world without sharing other people's feelings.

I didn't get the print-out of the interview with he the author.
Edit : I got it from google.

I send the book to Meso.

Got it right today.

For the few pages I read on my way back home from the post office, the book really looks gorgeous — and the other journal entries tend to prove this as well!

On my TBR; thank you Silentmiaouw!

I just loved it!!
It was full of truth, of the very deep sincerity of a child looking at the world and at the adults' lies...
And the heavy writing (ie. he says, she says, he says, she says...) isn't disturbing at all, it was a really easy and pleasant reading!

Thanks, I'll pass it on to plumedelapin.

Update: plumedelapin told me (s)he already read it via another bookring, so I'll pass it on to the next, namely therealdrbob.

Since I'm moving to the UK in September, I'll wait to be there in order to post him/her the book.

Stay tuned! ;-)

Received, will read asap.