This book will replace the lost one on goatgrrl's bookring.

Thanks so much, tuff517, for offering to revive this bookring. The comments below are copied from my original journal entry for this book, and the names in the bookring list which follows are those who hadn't yet received the book when the ring stalled. Thanks again!

The protagonist, Sammy, is a thirty-eight year old ex-convict, who as the novel begins wakes up on the street in Glasgow following a weekend-long drinking binge. He picks a fight with some cops and ends up in jail, where he discovers he's gone blind. The rest of the novel is a kind of odyssey, during which Sammy -- unable to see -- tries to make his way back to his girlfriend's apartment, then tries to figure out what's become of her. This is kind of a weird read, not for the judgmental or faint of heart. (N.B. those who are put off or offended by extremely coarse language will want to avoid this book.) I read this book as part of my Booker Prize reading project. Kelman (left) won the Booker for How Late it Was, How Late in 1994.

Rules of this bookring:
1. This is an international bookring -- if you join, please be willing to ship anywhere.
2. Please journal the book when you receive it, and again when you mail it out -- that way, everyone will know the book's approximate location.
3. If you don't think you'll be able to read this book within 6 weeks of receipt, please send it on to the next person in the ring, or let me know ahead of time and I'll move your name down the list. Thanks!

Participants:
1. gill846 - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
2. tania-in-nc - Mooresville, North Carolina, USA
3. NeedSun - Aurora, Ontario, Canada
4. tuff517 - McQueeney, Texas, USA
5. tantan - Gympie, Queensland, Australia
6. meganh - Gisborne, Victoria, Australia
7. fushmush - Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
8. peggysmum - Pearce, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
9. blurbren - Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia
10. lady-anglophile - Kuwait
11. Jenatleisure - Surrey, England, UK
12. dodau - Bristol, England, UK
13. jazz-ee2 - Mansfield, England, UK
14. Lillyanna - Malaga, Costa del Sol, Spain

Heading to gill846 today.

Received today. Wow, does this ever look good! Unfortunately I have two rings ahead of it (how come you go through six months without a single one, and then they all come at once??). I'll be going to Borden, ON and Oaxaca, Mexico both in the course of the next month, so this book might get to enjoy an interesting stay with me! Will be gone most of April, so if you don't hear anything till May 2nd, don't panic, I'm taking good care of this ring, just am not anywhere near a computer! Should be read and mailed out within a few days of my return. Thanks for sharing!

Well, I am sad to say that I wasn't able to finish this book. At the beginning, it was kind of interesting and the language and descriptions were very colourful, but about halfway through, I just wanted to kick Sammy's teeth in! What a complete and utter loser. I quit reading after his odyssey through Disability, when he wouldn't just tell the lady what really happened--for him to be convinced that he wouldn't be justified in receiving disability pension after what the cops had done to him while he was in THEIR custody was just plain irritating, as was his belief that they were even remotely justified in brutalizing him. I guess that was part of the point of the book, but I just didn't have the patience to go on.

I'll be interested to hear what others have to say; maybe someone will set me straight and fill me in on what I was missing :-) Thanks for sharing! Have PM'd the next in line and will get it sent as soon as I get an address.

It's two days into summer break and my girls were playing chalk outside. Along comes the postie (mailman) and hands a parcel to dd6. She comes into me - "There's a book for you!"
"It's from Canada."
"From Canada? I've never been to Canada! ... Can I have the bubble thing?"

Thanks for sharing!

I'm about to start some brain-candy ... A Time-Travel Christmas, by Megan Daniel, Vivian Knight-Jenkins, Eugenia Riley & Flora Speer, c. 1993 -- link goes to blog as it's from booksfree.com. See entry of May 27th, 2005 ... but this book will be next.


I collect quotes as I read. These ones are fun, poetical, or even philosophical. Take what you like, and leave the rest. Note that these aren't necessarily the "best" in the book. These happen to be close to the spot where I stopped reading each night.

These wee victories; ye've got to celebrate them. Otherwise ye forget ye've won them. p125

'Twas a strange book. The language got to me a bit.

Umm, err .. I apologise. This book has been sitting on my chest of drawers waiting to be posted and I kept looking at it. Finally, I packaged it up this afternoon and it will go tomorrow. Sorry about that.

This arrived around August 12. Poor book, it has been sitting on my kitchen table not journalized. Thanks very much for sending it my way!

Sent today to Tuff517 by surface mail.

Received today, will start ASAP.

Hm. This was surely one of the more unique books I've read. I fell into the rhythm of the writing fairly quickly, but I kept waiting for the story to start. It wasn't until the end [that I had to read three times] that I understood the story was the story. Usually I like books that just tell about human nature, etc, but I felt there was a promise of a conclusion to this book, and it was just a moment from a man's life. And that's okay. It just took me awhile longer to figure that out. So it wasn't a bad book, just a tough one, I had to think! Hey! That's tricky. Thanks to goatgrrl for sharing. Sending on to tantan.

This one obviously took the long flight round, but it has finally arrived! After having been posted way back in November...?!? :-) Going on to the bookrings TBR pile, and I'll get to it as soon as I can.

I was in two minds about this book after the first 100 or so pages. I was very tempted to just give up, but I persevered with it, and I'm glad I did. I found the crude language somewhat excessive, but I felt it did add to the atmosphere of the story. And even though there never really was a 'story' I did enjoy Sammy's journey along the way. I don't know what else to say - it was very different! :-)

meganh has asked to be skipped so it will be heading off to fushmush next.

***

Edit January 30th, 2006: Posted to fushmush today.

There have been some slight changes to the list of participants for this bookring so the new order is as follows from where the book is now:

tantan (Queensland, Australia)
meganh (Victoria, Australia)
fushmush (New South Wales, Australia)
peggysmum (Australian Capital Territory, Australia)
lady-anglophile (Kuwait)
Jenatleisure (England)
dodau (England)
jazz-ee2 (United Kingdom)
Lillyanna (Spain)
dospescados (New York, USA)
Back to tuff517 in Texas, USA!

Received in the mail today. I have one other Booker bookring ahead of it at the moment. Actually, I've had that one for a while so I better get cracking!

oh no! I too have been unable to finish this book. I did try but it was rather challenging. I started it, struggled through 60 pages and then put it down. A month later and I have not picked it up again. I've already had this bookray for far too long. I'm ready to admit defeat and get it moving.

I'm especially disappointed as I promised myself that I was going to read all the Booker books. This is the first one I've failed to finish :(

On to Peggysmum. I hope you have better luck!

Arrived in Canberra. Poor book is starting to show signs of the journey and the spine is giving way. I'll take it to work and get the library staff to have a go at repairing it for me.