Getting this in paperback from Quality Paperback Book Club. It will be my first Michael Moore read.

Bookring flight list is below.

nrrdgrrl in Netherlands
Jace in Denmark (I have no idea what happened here...Jace never made a journal entry)
albertofarina in Italy
paixful in Canada
kbgoffe in USA
Please note change of list here...participants got book as RABCK :-)
stardustnf in Canada
Please note change of list here.
egs in Canada

And then back to me :-)

wow... zmrzlina sure knows what the best packages look like. this one had no less than eleven stamps on it, the one even prettier than the next: from peculiar pelicans to an army general, from wooing irving berlin to arrogant-looking andy warhol (hard to see with mail stamp on his face... that's where arrogance gets you), first class coaches, a strong-looking lady and a drawn year of the goat. beautiful, just beautiful. and i'm not even a stamp collector. lots of mailstamps, official stickers, markings and whatnot.

oh, and there was a book in it too :o)
the large pocket looks fairly unharmed, with a couple of earmarks and dents. the book has a dirtyish and fumbled look, but i'm afraid that's called 'cover art'.

i hope to be able to start soon. but after weeks of utter silence, two other ring books arrived in the mail two days ago. so i'll have to see what i can do! if all else fails, i'll take the entire stack to france on my holiday, read them all in that week, and send them off on coming home.
i'll try to post here when i start.

allright... i'm sorry it took the while. apart from the two other ring books (big and fat ones on top of that) an entire book box came past. the good thing is that in the meantime my husband is taking his chance to read michael moore. he refuses to become a bookcrosser but if any oral comment is to be wrought from him i'll report.

next week i'll read this book. i've already pm'd jace for his address so i'll hopefully be able to send it off no later than monday 28th.

whoa, it's easy to remember why i set this book aside for quieter times. moore has his way of delivering the message, comparable to the power of advertising being repetition. i take turns reading this book and a different one, because the in-your-face narrative style is rather tiresome.

it's very interesting, though. if it were fiction no one would believe it. the sad news is: it's not fiction. it's well-researched journalism.

i'll digest some more and will report when done.

in the days that i was unable to visit the post office, i read some more and composed my final verdict.

though michael moore narrates in an entertaining and witty way, his stories are also very tiresome. the guy's always so right and very keen on making his point.

that's the main reason that after a bunch more snippets i thought: wellll, it's all somewhere else... it probably stinks as much in europe, and it would be interesting to read about it. but very hard to write, with all those different countries that have so much and so little in common.

an interesting effect: moore keeps trying to get his audience on their feet and do something about it. he even gives lots of examples and leads as to what and where and when. but he's so pushy that i can easily imagine people putting the book aside and having the idea that they have already done their bit, and more.
i know i did.

Released on Saturday, August 02, 2003 at controlled release in hilversum, noord-holland Netherlands.

in the mail to jace.
man has it taken me long to get this book out of the house. my apologies once again; it's never been more than two weeks with other books and i thought that was long. i'll be a good grrl and never do this again!

to compensate, i put my wallet upside down and sent priority. jace should have it in two business days.

Got this in the mail yesterday... I will read it soon of course. Just one note for now: I noticed the label with the list of the bookring participants is NOT glued to the book. Although having it travel by mail is pretty safe, I still prefer the list would become a part of the book itself -I plan therefore to glue the label to the book... that is unless the first registrant prefers to have it "clean" whenever it gets back home. (I'll go reading the previous Journal Entries to see if there's anything concerning the subject). I look forward to reading this -being Italian I am as ashamed of my President as Michael Moore is of his... Mine hasn't actually killed people so far, and he's more of a clown than a criminal, but what he's doing to our country will take ages to fix. :-(

Please do not glue the ring list to this book. I will release this book into the wild when it comes home (after I read it) and I don't want any extraneous labeling, other than the BCID and my own "Free Book!" labels.

Also, the actual ring order may have changed since the ring started so it is always best to check the online journal for the next in line.

After writing my first JE I got a message from Zmrzlina saying: "Please do not glue the ring list to this book. I will release this book into the wild when it comes home (after I read it) and I don't want any extraneous labeling, other than the BCID and my own "Free Book!" labels. "

So i didn't glue the ring list -or any other thing to the book, which I thought was a pity. I like to add stuff to the books I get before releasing them... but of course a ring is somewhat different.

I finally got around to read the book. It was more or less what I was expecting -lots of witty remarks, some exhaggeration for the sake of a good laugh, and sometimes the sensation that Moore rides a bit too much on his role of truth-sayer to sell his own stuff. Of course he's right in doing this... but I can't help being a bit taken off, for example, by the chapter where he ridicules recycling. Of course lots of what's recycled gets waste (shame on them), and of course one should not use the recycling thing as an alibi to keep consuming plastic and other resources (shame on that one). But one thing is saying, as Moore does, "I just decided not to recycle" (thus giving an alibi to an even bigger number of people to just do nothing and keep consuming)... another would be saying: do NOT waste unnecessary resources, try and reduce polluting behaviours... DO recycle the stuff you really could not help using (and that really you couldn't re-use once again)... and DO raise hell against the stupid white men who vanify in one line of some silly law or court decision the environment-friendly behaviour of thousands of people. I understand it's a more complicated message, and that it it much easier to get people's attention saying simple things. But simple things are not necessarily true.

Of course this is just an example, but one can't help being suspicious that Moore does this a lot - that is, caring too much about the Show or Shock potential of what he says and too little on accuracy.

That said, someone who is so much against the bad guys - Bush or his opponent, whatever the difference is -is very much welcome. But I think I'd rather see his movies than read his books in the future.

I also just read another related book which was kind of frightening - I am sure you know it, but if you don't, just check out the journal entries.

Many, many apologies for not having journalled and sent this on. The past year has been full of a lot of ups and downs personally and financially, and I'd pretty much had to give up bookcrossing, at least the trades and rings/rays. I think I've gotten back on track now, so I'm going to get this one out as soon as possible (will be pming egs as soon as I finish this entry!).

This book was pretty much what I'd expected, coming from Michael Moore. A lot of in-your-face, shocking statements with a few laughs thrown in. I'm not certain if I absolutely bought everything he said, but there were enough kernels of truth to certainly make people stop and think. While I don't always appreciate his humour, I respect him for having guts enough to stand up and say what many of us often think. So kudos to him for that.

Thanks, Zmrzlina, for sharing this one with us....and once again, so sorry for not having sent it on sooner.

I'll journal again as soon as it's safely on its way.

This one is now on it's way to egs in Nepean, Ontario.....enjoy!!

I just got back from a 2 week vacation to find this book in my mail. I started it while waiting in an Ottawa hospital parking lot. Thanks stardustnf!

/egs