The Bridges of Madison County
by Robert James Waller | Romance | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 044651652x Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 044651652x Global Overview for this book
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
1 journaler for this copy...
On November 22 several "BC in DC" members took a trip to the Book Thing in Baltimore to stock up on books. This book was chosen from there. I hope that I can release it soon!
Here is a copy of a journal entry that I wrote for a different copy of this book in July 2008:
I have read this book at least a couple times before and each time that I have read it I like it. Previously I wrote that the book was AMAZING! but now I'm not so sure that I would go that far in my praise of the book.
This book is a love story in a different way than most. It has a sadness to it since the love affair is only for four days and yet it manages to touch them both so deeply. It is both tragic and right that they never contact one another again even though it is desired by both. They each live life in a way that is most respectful of the others feelings and lifestyle. That says a lot to me and the romanticism of the love affair is part of what makes it a good story.
When discussions in the forums come up of books that people just couldn't stand this title always gets mentioned. I had planned to copy and paste some of those comments here but I've decided differently since reading all of the comments over time have colored my perceptions of this book. When once I really liked it I am almost now ashamed to like it because my opinion doesn't go with the outspoken crowds.
There are a few good points that people have mentioned about why this book is disliked and I think that I will bring them up here in a general sense so that they can be thought about but if you want to read the full versions a forum search here at bookcrossing will surely bring up some nice threads. A few of the objections were that this book idealizes adultery. And that it does as Francesca does indeed have an affair outside of her marriage. And no harm comes to her and her marriage continues despite the affair or maybe even because of it. This certainly is not the worst sins that I have read about in a book. Another objection is that the book is sickly sweet and that it makes people ill with the style of writing. Maybe that is just how this writer chooses to express himself. I found most of it to be lovely but also thought that there were parts that didn't read well because of strange details that are thrown in. And the last objection that I will bring up is that this book reads like a true story and that prompted a reader to try and find the National Geographic issue of the covered bridges and to find Robert Kincaid and more about him. She was disappointed to find out that the book is fiction and the characters are not real. That disappoints me a little too. I really did think that this had the ring of a true story and I read it just a little differently this time around knowing that it was not. I don't think that it is a huge thing though because I had never tried to seek out any of the characters thinking that if it was a true story that the identifiers would have been changed to protect the family.
All in all I think that this is an easy to read book that is great for discussion with a good friend over a cup of tea. I can't say that I all in all recommend this book knowing that I do the vast amount of people here that dislike it but as with any book I think the reader needs to decide whether or not to read the books that are available to him or her.
Best Wishes in reading!!!
I have read this book at least a couple times before and each time that I have read it I like it. Previously I wrote that the book was AMAZING! but now I'm not so sure that I would go that far in my praise of the book.
This book is a love story in a different way than most. It has a sadness to it since the love affair is only for four days and yet it manages to touch them both so deeply. It is both tragic and right that they never contact one another again even though it is desired by both. They each live life in a way that is most respectful of the others feelings and lifestyle. That says a lot to me and the romanticism of the love affair is part of what makes it a good story.
When discussions in the forums come up of books that people just couldn't stand this title always gets mentioned. I had planned to copy and paste some of those comments here but I've decided differently since reading all of the comments over time have colored my perceptions of this book. When once I really liked it I am almost now ashamed to like it because my opinion doesn't go with the outspoken crowds.
There are a few good points that people have mentioned about why this book is disliked and I think that I will bring them up here in a general sense so that they can be thought about but if you want to read the full versions a forum search here at bookcrossing will surely bring up some nice threads. A few of the objections were that this book idealizes adultery. And that it does as Francesca does indeed have an affair outside of her marriage. And no harm comes to her and her marriage continues despite the affair or maybe even because of it. This certainly is not the worst sins that I have read about in a book. Another objection is that the book is sickly sweet and that it makes people ill with the style of writing. Maybe that is just how this writer chooses to express himself. I found most of it to be lovely but also thought that there were parts that didn't read well because of strange details that are thrown in. And the last objection that I will bring up is that this book reads like a true story and that prompted a reader to try and find the National Geographic issue of the covered bridges and to find Robert Kincaid and more about him. She was disappointed to find out that the book is fiction and the characters are not real. That disappoints me a little too. I really did think that this had the ring of a true story and I read it just a little differently this time around knowing that it was not. I don't think that it is a huge thing though because I had never tried to seek out any of the characters thinking that if it was a true story that the identifiers would have been changed to protect the family.
All in all I think that this is an easy to read book that is great for discussion with a good friend over a cup of tea. I can't say that I all in all recommend this book knowing that I do the vast amount of people here that dislike it but as with any book I think the reader needs to decide whether or not to read the books that are available to him or her.
Best Wishes in reading!!!
From the inside front cover flap:
There are songs that come free from the blue-eyed grass, from the dust of a thousand country roads. This is one of them.
And so begins the story that you will never forget...
THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY
...is the story of Robert Kincaid, a world-class photographer, and Francesca Johnson, an Iowa farm wife. Kincaid, fifty-two, is a photographer for National Geographic.A strange, almost mystical traveler of Asian deserts, distant rivers, and ancient cities, he is a man who feels out of harmony with his time. Francesca Johnson, forty-five and once a young war bride from Italy, lives in the hills of south Iowa with flickering memories of her girlhood dreams. Each of them is content, yet when Robert Kincaid drives through the heat and dust of an Iowa summer and turns into her farm lane looking for directions, their illusions fall away, and they are joined in an experience of uncommon and sudden beauty, an experience that will haunt them forever.
As the photographer Kincaid uses light not to reveal objects, but rather his own kind of truth, what occurs by the old bridges of Madison County becomes a prism transforming the ordinary emotions we think we understand into something rare and brilliant. The result is a passionate, deeply moving experience in lyrical prose, an achievement that puts Robert James Waller in the forefront of this contry's new fiction writers.
From the back cover:
HE NOTICED ALL OF HER...
He could have walked out on this earlier, could still walk. Rationality shrieked at him. "Let it go, Kincaid, get back on the road. Shoot the bridges, go to India. Stop in Bangkok on the way amd look up the silk merchant's daughter who knows every ecstatic secret the old ways can teach. Swim naked with her at dawn in jungle pools and listen to her scream as you turn her inside out at twilight. Let go of this" - the voice was hissing now - "it's outrunning you."
But the slow street tango had begun. Somewhere it played; he could hear it, an old accordian. It was far back, or far ahead, he couldn't be sure. Yet it moved toward him steadily. And the sound of it blurred his criteria and funneled his own alternatives toward unity. Inexorably it did that, until there was nowhere left to go, except toward Franceseca Johnson.
There are songs that come free from the blue-eyed grass, from the dust of a thousand country roads. This is one of them.
And so begins the story that you will never forget...
...is the story of Robert Kincaid, a world-class photographer, and Francesca Johnson, an Iowa farm wife. Kincaid, fifty-two, is a photographer for National Geographic.A strange, almost mystical traveler of Asian deserts, distant rivers, and ancient cities, he is a man who feels out of harmony with his time. Francesca Johnson, forty-five and once a young war bride from Italy, lives in the hills of south Iowa with flickering memories of her girlhood dreams. Each of them is content, yet when Robert Kincaid drives through the heat and dust of an Iowa summer and turns into her farm lane looking for directions, their illusions fall away, and they are joined in an experience of uncommon and sudden beauty, an experience that will haunt them forever.
As the photographer Kincaid uses light not to reveal objects, but rather his own kind of truth, what occurs by the old bridges of Madison County becomes a prism transforming the ordinary emotions we think we understand into something rare and brilliant. The result is a passionate, deeply moving experience in lyrical prose, an achievement that puts Robert James Waller in the forefront of this contry's new fiction writers.
From the back cover:
He could have walked out on this earlier, could still walk. Rationality shrieked at him. "Let it go, Kincaid, get back on the road. Shoot the bridges, go to India. Stop in Bangkok on the way amd look up the silk merchant's daughter who knows every ecstatic secret the old ways can teach. Swim naked with her at dawn in jungle pools and listen to her scream as you turn her inside out at twilight. Let go of this" - the voice was hissing now - "it's outrunning you."
But the slow street tango had begun. Somewhere it played; he could hear it, an old accordian. It was far back, or far ahead, he couldn't be sure. Yet it moved toward him steadily. And the sound of it blurred his criteria and funneled his own alternatives toward unity. Inexorably it did that, until there was nowhere left to go, except toward Franceseca Johnson.
This book was released for the 2009 Movie/TV Books Release Challenge from the release challenge forum.
This is release #30 for this challenge.
This is release #30 for this challenge.
This book was released for the 2009 Oh, The Places We Can Go! Release Challenge from the release challenge forum.
Can you find the place name in the title of this book? I used this World City Name Database to help me find places I would not have known otherwise.
This is release #77 for this challenge.
Can you find the place name in the title of this book? I used this World City Name Database to help me find places I would not have known otherwise.
This is release #77 for this challenge.
This book is being counted for the 2009 Track Your Challenge Releases from the release challenge forum. This book is being released for one or more other challenges.
This is release #299 for the year that qualifies for this challenge.
This is release #299 for the year that qualifies for this challenge.
Journal Entry 7 by crrcookie at Carroll Community College in Westminster, Maryland USA on Sunday, March 8, 2009
Released 15 yrs ago (3/7/2009 UTC) at Carroll Community College in Westminster, Maryland USA
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
This book is a part of the books to be given away at
The Annual Random House Book Fair
Benefiting Carroll Community College's student scholarships.
Saturday, March 7
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Free and open to the public
BookCrossers will host a table where people may come and take free books. Leftover books may be donated to the OBCZ (Official Book Crossing Zone) in the library.
This is a one time event and although you may find a leftover book or two after the event you should not try to hunt for specific books released for this event.
************************************************************
You have found a very special book! This book was left on purpose because it needs to find a new reader. You can help this book travel on by passing it to a friend or leaving it "in the wild" when you are done with it. It doesn't have to travel far or soon. Feel free to enjoy it for as long as you like.
You may always make a journal entry without joining the website but if you do decide to join please use the screenname crrcookie or any other previous journaler of this book as the referring member.
Have a great day and Happy BookCrossing!!!
************************************************************
The Annual Random House Book Fair
Benefiting Carroll Community College's student scholarships.
Saturday, March 7
9 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Free and open to the public
BookCrossers will host a table where people may come and take free books. Leftover books may be donated to the OBCZ (Official Book Crossing Zone) in the library.
This is a one time event and although you may find a leftover book or two after the event you should not try to hunt for specific books released for this event.
You have found a very special book! This book was left on purpose because it needs to find a new reader. You can help this book travel on by passing it to a friend or leaving it "in the wild" when you are done with it. It doesn't have to travel far or soon. Feel free to enjoy it for as long as you like.
You may always make a journal entry without joining the website but if you do decide to join please use the screenname crrcookie or any other previous journaler of this book as the referring member.
Have a great day and Happy BookCrossing!!!
