American Psycho - Join this Bookray!!

by Bret Easton Ellis | Mystery & Thrillers |
ISBN: 0679735771 Global Overview for this book
Registered by Crestfallen of Barreiro, Setúbal Portugal on 4/25/2003
Buy from one of these Booksellers:
Amazon.com | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon IT | Bol.com
10 journalers for this copy...
Journal Entry 1 by Crestfallen from Barreiro, Setúbal Portugal on Friday, April 25, 2003
Here's a bit of the story:

"Patrick Bateman is handsome, well educated, intelligent . He works by day on Wall Street, earning a fortune to complement the one he was born with. His nights he spends in ways we cannot begin to fathom. He is twenty-six years old and living his own American Dream".

Enjoy!

AMERICAN PSYCHO BOOKRAY :
1.º luckaye - Australia
2.º EllyMae58 - USA
3.º eireannaigh - USA
4.º HERRUNDMEYER -Germany
5.º linguistKris - Germany
6.º Suzen - France
7.º Arina - Portugal
8.º eduardorui - Portugal
9.º Dualidade - Portugal
10.º Alquimista - Portugal<------------
11.º jcleto - Portugal
12.º DEESSE - France/Germany
13.º patxocas - Madeira/portugal
14.º dallasjay - California/USA



Journal Entry 2 by Crestfallen from Barreiro, Setúbal Portugal on Tuesday, May 6, 2003
It's time to say goodbye to this great book... It is now heading for Australia where it'll be welcomed by luckaye.. And this will only be its first stop of a long voyage. :)

bye, bye

Journal Entry 3 by luckaye from Crestmead, Queensland Australia on Wednesday, May 21, 2003
I received this book today from Crestfallen as part of a bookray. My husband wanted to read it, so I will report back what he thinks.

Journal Entry 4 by luckaye at Kingston PO in Kingston, Queensland Australia on Sunday, August 24, 2003
Released on Monday, August 18, 2003 at Kingston PO in Kingston, Queensland Australia.

Sorry! I forgot to make a release note for this book! I sent it last week to the next person in line.

Journal Entry 5 by EllyMae58 from El Cajon, California USA on Saturday, September 6, 2003
Yay! It's finally here! I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this book, I've wanted to read it for so long! But it will have to wait just a tad bit longer, while I finish up two other bookray titles first! Will journal again soon. Thank you, Crestfallen, for starting this ray, and thanks to luckaye for sending it my way. :)

Journal Entry 6 by EllyMae58 from El Cajon, California USA on Sunday, September 7, 2003
Okay, I've seen the movie, so I had some idea what to expect from the book. But still..what a wack job this guy is! I'm muddling through the writing; I'm getting a bit tired of all the head-to-toe descriptions of what every character is wearing. Geez. But it does give a good impression of Bateman's materialisticness. (Is that even a word?)

Journal Entry 7 by EllyMae58 from El Cajon, California USA on Monday, September 8, 2003
Whoa! And I thought the movie was crazy!!

Moving on to eireannaigh next, hopefully tomorrow!

Journal Entry 8 by Herrundmeyer from Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg Germany on Friday, October 24, 2003
Arrived in Germany today - thanks to everyone who sent this on. TBR ASAP, and then off to LinguistKris.

Journal Entry 9 by Herrundmeyer from Heilbronn, Baden-Württemberg Germany on Wednesday, October 29, 2003
Well, what is the correct word to describe this book?!
Exciting, perhaps.
Gross, at times.
Crazy, for sure.
Intense.

Released on Thursday, October 30, 2003 at mailed to a fellow bookcrosser in Gelsenkirchen, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany.

Postal release to LinguistKris

Journal Entry 11 by linguistkris from Remscheid, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on Thursday, December 4, 2003
Oh dear! I was very curious about this book, and having finished about a third of it in only two days will probably go to show just what a quick and fascinating read it is. But true: it's sad and weird and scary. And the narrator has only just started to show his crazy side... *Shudder*

Journal Entry 12 by linguistkris from Remscheid, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany on Tuesday, January 6, 2004
This, you might be surprised to hear, was the grossest book I ever read. I skipped whole pages because I just couldn't bear the minute descriptions of the cruelest torture, mutilation and murder (and I'm usually not too queasy!).
However, it was also one of the most accurate, sarcastic and even bitterly funny descriptions of the (stereo-)typical 80s yuppie mentality. Since I was in my (very) early teens when the book is set, I cannot claim to have an insider's understanding of manager culture, but I did recognize quite a lot of things I remember as typical of those years. I especially enjoyed the detailled accounts of what everybody is wearing and having at the in restaurants (which I admit were tedious, but to me still contribute a lot to the narrator's charaterization).

When I later discussed the book with a friend who had read it a few years ago, I found it very interesting we shared the idea that the narrator is a lot more unreliable than he admits (reminiscent of some of E. A. Poe's work), and that everything (i.e. all the gruesome details I could not stand) might all just have been creations of his drug- and anxiety-ridden mind.
So there: What do you people think?

My verdict: Very cleverly constructed and well-written, a document of the times and a complex character study in one.

Released on Tuesday, January 06, 2004 at Book Ray in Post, Nordrhein-Westfalen Germany.

On to suzen in France!

Journal Entry 14 by suzen from Montreuil, Ile-de-France France on Sunday, January 18, 2004
Got it, thanks! I'm really curious to see what my impression of this book is after reading the other comments. I'll let you know...

Journal Entry 15 by suzen from Montreuil, Ile-de-France France on Sunday, January 25, 2004
Wow! I admit that I really liked this book even though, as others have said, some parts are really very disgusting and hard to read. I found myself laughing out loud at times at the dialogue between all these self-absorbed people. It's kind of scary to think about their superficiality and the dichotomy between interior and exterior realities. If he's this crazy, what's to say the rest of them (us) aren't too? I agree that the narrator is very unreliable, even by his own admission. I think questioning reality is part of the point of the book, so I doubt if the reader can know for sure if he did all the gory things he described or not. To avoid nightmares, I've decided to believe it was all in his head!

Journal Entry 16 by Arina from Lisboa - City, Lisboa (cidade) Portugal on Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Got this book a few weeks ago, but only now had time to get down to business and make a journal entry for it. I joined this ring because i was very curious about this book. I didn't see the film (now, i'm actually happy i didn't), and had no idea what to expect from this one. Now that i'm more thab halfway through the book, i believe it to be one of the most sickening, grossest, crazy things i have read in quite a while. And yet, inspite of all the gore details, it can be quite funny at times, and it is very weel written. It will be on it's way as soon as i'm done.

Journal Entry 17 by Arina from Lisboa - City, Lisboa (cidade) Portugal on Tuesday, August 24, 2004
No matter how hard i tried, i couldn't bring myself to finnish this one. So, and because i've had it for far too long and people are beginning to grow impatiente, i'm sending it on it's way to the next one in line. Hope he enjoys it more than i was able to.

Journal Entry 18 by eduardorui on Thursday, August 26, 2004
Just received it from Crestfallen and Arina. I can't wait to start reading... just hope I will finish it.

Journal Entry 19 by eduardorui on Thursday, April 28, 2005
It took me quite a while to finish it, but I have completed the task! Very intelligent writing, though I think there are some strange chapters that doesn't belong, like those about music stars. What is that?
The crime scenes are terrific. I almoust threw up while reading one of the last ones. And I have a very hard stomach...
I liked ot, I really did, but it takes a while to get used to Pat Bateman, I tell you this...

Journal Entry 20 by Alquimista from Lisbon, not specified not specified on Tuesday, August 16, 2005
Received the book today on the mail. Despite the difficulty that the previous readers had with it, I will try and read it with an open mind. I'll get back to you when finished. Thanks!

Journal Entry 21 by DEESSE from Erstein, Alsace France on Thursday, October 11, 2007
The book arrived safely here yesterday, thanks Alquimista for sending it on. It's one of those lovely, much-read and handled bookcrossing books where the edge of the pages has already been "softened" by many readers!

I have some other books to be read before, but I hope to read it in the near future. After having read the previous journal entries, I'm a bit worried/scared if I can stand it, though, but I'll give it a fair try - and I've very seldom not finished a book that I've started.

Journal Entry 22 by DEESSE from Erstein, Alsace France on Thursday, November 22, 2007
I just finished reading this book - and I don't know what to think or write about it.
Of course the very detailled descriptions of the tortures and murders were very shocking (at least they didn't give me any nightmares), but I can't really say that the book was complete "rubbish".
The very long descriptions of what everyone was wearing were very - boring, as were the descriptions of what "state-of-the-art" electronic equipment he had just bought and delivered and what they were ordering in their restaurants.
Nobody seems to have a real friend, they don't really seem to know each other and keep mistaking each other for other people - very strange.
Strange were as well the three chapters on Genesis, Whitney Houston and Huey Lewis and the News.
Patrick Bateman's "friends" are (a part from the "psycho"-part in his brain) like him, their lives centered around money-making, spending it all on expensive things, making reservations in the latest "in"-restaurants and "doing" some coke. Nobody I really would like to get to know in real life, no thanks!
I didn't know if I should hate the main character, Patrick Bateman, because of what he does to his animal of human victims, or if I should rather pity him and his sick mind, because nobody really listens to him when he says that his life is hell or when he admits the murders.

Thank you, Crestfallen, anyway for letting me discover this book (another example of books I would have never read without bookcrossing) - and thanks everyone for passing it on.

As dualidade didn't answer my three PMs I've contacted jcleto now and am currently waiting for an address.

Edit:
Jcleto has already read this book. I've PMd patxocas now.

Edit 28.11.07:
The book is on its way to patxocas.

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