TBR

Requested off paperbackswap so I'd have a copy to bookring. Bookring coming soon :)

My first bookcrossing entry. I caught this title from midwinter at Something Sweet, after we compared "Ooh, you gotta read this!" notes. Read it, loved it, returned it... Not sure what the "status" thingy should say now, though. They don't have a "returned with many thanks" option, so I guess I'll just say it's "available."

The book's back with me, and almost ready to head out on a bookring. I enjoyed this one SO much more than Stephenson's famous Snow Crash. Here's the amazon.com review, so future bookring participants know what they're in for :)

From Publishers Weekly
Stephenson's (The Big U) improbable hero is Sangamon Taylor, a high-tech jack-of-all-trades who inhales nitrous oxide for kicks and scouts environmental hazards for GEE, the Group of Environmental Extremists. Taylor particularly wants to nab the polluters of Boston Harbor, whose toxic sludge he monitors by zipping from illegal pipeline to illegal pipeline in his inflatable Zodiac raft. His work is slow-going and boring until the concentration of deadly PCBs rises inexplicably and then mysteriously drops to nothing. And then the "eco-thriller" begins: the bad guys are everywhere as Taylor ferrets out the connections between his bizarre landlord, a nerdy friend from college who's at work on a top-secret genetic-engineering project for a high-tech company, an industrialist-turned-Presidential-candidate and the crazed fans of Poyzen Boyzen, a heavy-metal band. In creating this all-too-conceivable story of industry and science running amok, Stephenson puts his technological knowledge elegantly to use, but never lets gadgets and gizmos take over the story. The characters are entertaining, if broadly drawn, and the rip-roaring conclusion will make a dandy denouement in the movie rendition.
****
Yes, you read that right, kids. Apparently Warner Bros. has secured the movie rights to this book. We'll see...

Bookring shipping order:
hak42, New Hampshire, USA (int'l)
LaRue, New York, USA (US Only)
susanmrz, New Jersey, USA (US pref.)
sarradee, Texas, USA (US/Can. pref.)
mnewman, Oregon, USA (US pref.)
Lpree, Nebraska, USA (int'l)
eicuthbertson, Canada, BC (int'l)
Nalex, France (int'l)
cloggy, UK (int'l)
*****

Off to hak42 today!

I received the book today. I should be able to send it on to the next person on the list within a week.

I've finally read a Neal Stephenson book. :) This book was particularly interesting to me, because I'm from Massachusetts. I know the areas he was talking about.

Sangamon Taylor is, as the back of the book says, a "professional pain in the ass". He's trying to stop the major corporations from dumping toxic wastes into Boston Harbor and he has a lot of fun pissing them off. Eventually his actions catch up with him and now he's got people after him.

This book is hysterical with great one liners. An excellent piece of science fiction.

I'm sending this off to LaRue today.

Just got home from vacation to find this waiting for me - thanks!

Very entertaining "eco-thriller" - S.T. "sounds" to me like he should be played by John Cusack. I loved Snow Crash, and this is as good, but in a different way - Stephenson doesn't have to create a future world like in SC, but this can hold its own with any thriller currently out there. Sending on to susanmrz!

Received today from felllow bookcrosser as part of book ring. Looking forward to reading it

Mailed today to next person in the ring Sarradee. I was not able to get into this book so am sending it on rather than let it sit on the TBR pile. I hope you enjoy it.

Arrived today, just need to finish up the book I'm reading and then I'll move onto this one.

I don't think I've had a bad Stephenson yet. Using the near future instead of the distant future as a backdrop, with apt descriptions and a witty, fast paced style he's written a fun, yet scarily realistic eco-thriller.

Sangamon Taylor and his band of merry GEE staff chase around Boston trying to make the world a safer, less chemically nasty place. In the process he discovers that a company had dumped some really bad stuff in the harbor, and then hired genetic engineers to clean it up. Not the smartest idea. Between being chased by the Mafia, the FBI and a group of Satanists who misheard PCB as PCP, Sangamon is going to be lucky if he comes out of this one alive.

I've got mnewman's address, and I'm packing this up and taking it out to the mailbox right now.

EDITED TO ADD: (4/28/06) I mailed this on March 30 to the address confirmed to me by mnewman via PM. She has yet to journal the arrival, and there are several ISO messages for her in the forum for other books and bookboxes in her possession that haven't been journaled or haven't been passed on.

In an interesting twist, some of the books that were known to be sent to mnewman have turned up and been journaled by a person who bought them at a yardsale. See this forum thread for details:

http://bookcrossing.com/forum/20/3567406/14

this one was in a one of many boxes of books I bought at a yard sale

reading through journal entries I''ve discovered this was once a ring. I will read it soon and see if anyone on the list is still interested.

started this but couldn't get into it, so now it is available

RELEASE NOTES:

released for the 2007 Halloween/Samhein Challenge with a twist

Got this off of Frugalreader.com and plan to post it to a number of booksap sites.

I read his cryptonomicon and the baroque cycle before this but this novel was more concrete for me. Although filled with eco-warriors and polluters, the characters were easier to understand than his others.