I love this book. I got this copy so that I could read the new afterword that comes with this edition. Now that I've read the afterword, I'm ready to release the book. The front cover was damaged before I bought the book second hand, but the book is otherwise in good shape.

Given its subject matter (for starters, the protagonist is the bastard son of a feminist leader and was conceived in a most unorthodox manner), there's no better time to release it than during the Mental Hygiene Festival!

Released on Saturday, October 26, 2002 at Bloor Cinema in Toronto, Ontario Canada.

This book will be released at the Mental Hygiene festival tonight. Enjoy!


October 27, 2002: I released this book much later than anticipated. It was released on a table in the balcony lounge at approximately 11:00 pm on Saturday, October 26th. It was still there at the end of the 11:00 pm show. I hope it didn't end up in the lost and found!

I found "The World According to Garp" at the Bloor Cinema (506 Bloor St. West) in Toronto on an end table in the second floor "lounge." My wife and I had just finished watching some "Mental Hygiene" films produced in the '40s, '50s and '60s, in order to teach grade school/high school students good social skills. While my wife was in the washroom, I sat down in a comfy chair to wait and saw this book. I noticed that someone had left the book, recognized the title and was curious so I picked it up. I'd heard about the Book Crossing program in a radio interview (on CBC, I think) so thought this would be a cool opportunity to participate in the game of it. I've read one other book by John Irving (Hotel New Hampshire) and saw the movie "The Cider House Rules" and also heard him give a lecture and question-and-answer session at the Music Hall Theatre in Toronto a few years ago. I always remember as a kid working in my local library in Atikokan Ontario thinking that this was a strange name for a person but was stuck in a Hardy Boys phase and never found out who he was. It's a 20th anniversary edition paperback, so I'm curious to see how Irving addresses the sexual and cultural mores of the 1970s in his often off-the-wall way. Thanks for the opportunity for a little bit of literary adventure!

I'm happy to hear that the book was caught after all! I hope that you'll let me know what you think of it after you've read it.