This might work better than trying to play with glue. When I stamped my copy into my book, I used plain scotch tape and a small piece of paper for grip and it worked really well.

Sometimes the simplest answer is the best answer!

Thank you for the link about ways of shaving down a stamp. It's so much easier to carve if the block is thicker, I never would have though of shaving it down first. You learn something new every day!

I'll have to check out Obitchuary both book and podcast... it sounds right up my alley.

I finished The Witches of El Paso 3/5 stars from me. There were several elements I liked, but there were a lot of plot elements that just didn't gel or get resolved. The characters were pretty well drawn, and the story is well written, it just doesn't really go anywhere.

Here's a fuller Goodreads review from me: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8199203884#

A little late to the hug party, but know they are ferociously coming in from NMRK and I, as well!

Would love to see what you put together if you are willing to share!
I forgot to add that if you love carving you can team up with someone who loves planting.
And also that getting the order of operations correct for stamping/taking hitchhikers can be tough when you are new.

Thanks!

The carving material arrived. It was much darker than shown, almost black. After sanding it down it got a few shades lighter. The laser printer and acetone transfer was easy enough to do but very hard to see. I wasn't able to get any fine details as I couldn't see the transfer. It is easy to carve if you just want to do basic shapes. Inking it up leaves a lot to be desired and the resulting image was very poor. To sum it all up.... Not worth wasting your time or money on.

I have a question about this.
Why does a stamp at an even have to be retired? In what situation would we need to put any stamp into retirement, unless it's missing?
Just curious. We are going to our 1st event in over 10 years. Wanna make sure we do things correctly. Lol

Ohhhmygoodness... has anyone watched The Visit by M. Night Shayamalan??? I think it's my favorite so far. I'm pretty sure I laughed more than anything. Lol

A lot of folks plant traditional boxes at their campsite or on their car’s bumper. If they don’t retire those boxes after the event, someone who searches the area for boxes will see those now-missing boxes, which is annoying and misleading.

This is one of several reasons why I’d make these types of boxes event boxes instead of traditional boxes (inflated F-counts being another), but I’ve given up trying to die on this hill.* 🤷‍♀️

*Or not, because I brought it up here! 🤪

For those that like to watch movies based on books, do you prefer to read the book 1st, or watch the movie??
It seems I'm always judging the movie. Like "That's not what happened!" OR, "He is supposed to die, not her!" The one series of books now movies, is the Divergent series. Sooooooo disappointed in the final movie because they left out so much at the end that I felt was not only important, but gave the story closure. NOT THE MOVIE!! lol

I just want to say that I LOVE AQ & EVERYONE IN IT. I have gotten to know a handful of people that are so kind, helpful, generous... just amazing people. I hope someday to give y'all a big hug. Plus, putting a face to a name is always nice ♡ Anywho, just wanted to give everyone a virtual hug and just say I LOVE YA!!
Dawni - Wind

I agree! Letterboxers are by far the kindest, most generous group of people I’ve ever met! I feel very lucky to be part of this community. ❤️

I prefer the book before the movie... and I agree that sometimes I watch the movie and have a great big WTH moment. In my head - when I'm reading - my imagination is already adding color, voices, etc. So usually, I'm let down completely by the on-screen adaptations.

Garfield and James and the Giant Peach were treasured childhood memories - ruined by the on-screen versions.

Though I LOVED the cinematic version of Memories of a Geisha. I read it first and while the story was greatly edited - the cinematography was superb.

I read Silence of the Lambs - afterwards there was NO WAY I could watch it...

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback.

It depends... I usually read books first if I'm aware they exist. Two times come to mind where I thought the movie was better than the book: "Practical Magic" (although the book helps to fill in the plot gaps I wouldn't have understood otherwise) and "All the Light We Cannot See" (I just thought it was too slow paced and had a hard time paying attention).

I think movies/shows should follow books more closely if they do adaptations, in my opinion. I abhor when they change the ending because it doesn't do the author or the book justice! Sigh

I'm a movie fan - though I have read a lot. I took a screenwriting course once and learned a lot about how movies work. They are a different animal than books, and have to be. Knowing that, and why, I understand that there will be a lot left out when adapting a book to a movie.

So I much prefer watching the movie version first. That way, when you read the book after and it is richer and denser than the movie, it's like a bonus into that world.

If you read the book first, all too often you are disappointed at the things they left out.

Take the movie, The Door in the Floor (great movie!). It is based on the first third of John Irving's A Widow for One Year. I saw movie first - then read the book. I can only imagine how unfulfilled I would have been had it been the other way around.

Or even Fight Club. It's one of my favorite movies. I read the book after. They are different but I'm glad I saw the movie first. Incidentally, there is a commentary track over the movie (if you have a DVD of it) where the book author (Chuck Palahniuk) discusses the changes with the screenwriter. It's a good insight into why movie pacing has to be different than books. It's also one of my favorite books now.

We’ll be in Wichita and available for a meet up on Feb 9th or 10th. I am visiting a friend that started me in the Letterboxing habit.. err I mean hobby….

Anyone from Kansas interested?

Shelly

I also prefer reading a book first.
3 movies that did the book justice are:
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Last Thing He Told Me
Where the Crawdads Sing

I remember reading a book in high school(70’s)called A Patch of Blue, it was made into a movie 1965, starring Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters & Elizabeth Hartman. The movie was great, chilling, thrilling, emotional, but I was glad I read the book first, to get the full details & to feel the different personalities of each person. Loved it.
The Outsiders was another book I enjoyed reading first, Ponyboy Curtis was my favorite, the movie was also great with an excellent cast.

First Clue Posted: Oregon
I already solved it. It looks like you get a couple days to figure it out, then have to "show up" at the listed time.

Florida
Pretty sure I solved that one too. The clues are, so far, like simple letterbox mystery boxes.

It clutters up the search results if you leave a bunch of boxes listed as "active" when they really aren't there. It's just a way to let people know that there's nothing to be found by following those clues. Don't waste your time looking for it.

-- Ryan

SAME! Everyone thinks I'm weird for this, but it's like watching the cliff notes then getting to do a deep dive when reading.

I can almost always enjoy the movie if I have nothing to compare it to, but if I've read the book and loved it, I can't enjoy the movie. I spend the entire time thinking about the differences and cut out scenes. Even descriptions/character appearances will turn me off from the movie.

Some films do a pretty good job with a book and some do not. If I read the book first I’ll probably be annoyed with the film.

But I think that it’s very rare that a book translates well to film, simply because it’s too very different mediums.

Recently on Facebook someone complained that an author took several pages to illustrate what a movie showed in a few minutes. I don’t think that’s a valid complaint.

Film can very easily show a mood and location in minutes. An author has to use the printed word to bring the reader to a place and feeling. This can take pages to describe. It’s apples and oranges.

You take a traditional stamp to an event, hide it, leave clues on a bulletin board. Maybe you hide it behind your cabin if it’s a camping type event. After the event you take the box home.

It’s not there anymore. It needs to be retired. People can continue to log finds even if it’s retired.

If you want to plant that box somewhere else at a later time you create a new listing

It’s ok you won’t die alone. Some of us will be up there with you. :)))

Yeah, I saw there was a limited window to actually find the idols. That’s going to make it hard to be there at the right time, especially if it’s on the other side of the state.

I read a lot and I see a lot of movies. In college, I was an English major with a Film Minor. So I love both. I usually have read the book first, especially with classic texts (Jane Austen, Edith Wharton, Steinbeck, Hemingway, Fitzgerald etc etc ) and sometimes I’ll see a movie and I will seek out the original book — I often look forward to a movie made from a book specifically to see how they interpret it. Most recently, The Martian and Project Hail Mary from the books by Andy Weir

Amanda from Seattle

I agree. I guess it is nice they give you a couple days before the required meet time, but that is still a potential logistical nightmare. At least for me, I feel the odds of them being around Anchorage are VERY high so I can do it, but it will still be on a random weekday (clue releases on a Saturday here).

Older post, but I have been planting a winter holiday themed stamp in a big green christmas bulb that I hide in the holiday decor at Olde Mistick Village. I mark it as a limited time because I need to remove it before they take down the holiday decorations. This is outside of a letterboxing event, but it is one reason why a limited time would be marked on a traditional stamp.

I have travelled to Wichita all my life but everyone has now passed away so there won't be a reason to go again. To go while you're there for a meet up tho....hmmm :)