Product Description

URGENT!

JUST RELEASED:
THE LOST JOURNAL OF INDIANA JONES™

The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation is pleased to release one of its most prized holdings, the heretofore "lost" journal of Dr. Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr., which was obscured within the KGB's collection for years before passing into the Russian Federation's possession. From Jones's notes on his youthful encounters with the likes of Lawrence of Arabia and Teddy Roosevelt, through his adulthood adventures with the Thuggee Cult, the Nazis, and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, this journal covers nearly fifty years in his life, spanning from 1908 to 1957. Dr. Jones's snapshots, sketches, press clippings, and entries recording his personal thoughts are all revealed in this volume, giving new insight into one of the most enigmatic adventurers of the twentieth century.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #77582 in Books
• Published on: 2008-05-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Imitation Leather
• 160 pages

Customer Reviews

Like owning a piece of (fake) History!
I gotta admit, despite being probably the world's most devoted Indy fan, when I first saw The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones, I really didn't think too much of it. With the impending release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I fully expect to see a virtual tidal wave of movie tie-in merchandise leading up to the May 22nd Premiere. Some of it cheesy (see my blog review of the Indiana Jones Adventure Spoon!) and some of it great. This is definitely in the "great" category.

But, as a devoted Indy fan, I bought it anyway (could I do anything else?) and it's really a clever idea. It's not a book but a scrapbook. The premise (such as there is) is that the KGB some how came into the possession of Dr. Jones Jr's diary in Peru, South America, in 1957. It was later inherited by the mythical "Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation" and was consequently released to the public. This is all established by a sort of page seal that fits over the front cover. The back has a little more of the "back-story" on a label designed to be cleanly removed. This is intentional as the book itself is made out of a faux leather-type material and has an elastic band to keep the book closed. It's obviously been designed to resemble Dr Jones, Sr's Grail Diary seen in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Special Edition).

The inside of the book contains only a minimum of text, mostly being devoted to hand-drawn maps, taped in "letters," pictures, and memorabilia of the kind that you'd expect from Jones' adventurous life.

It's really a clever idea, pioneered by similar products like Lucy & Desi: The Real Life Scrapbook of America's Favorite TV Couple.

This is definitely a must-have for any fans! It'll take a place of honor next to my Indiana Jones Khyber Bowie Knife!

A coffee table book in diary's clothing
This Lost Journal is essentially a small coffee table book that's made to look a cross between a diary and a scrap book. It's very pretty and any Indiana Jones fan will enjoy it immensely if they have no misconceptions about what it is.

What it is NOT is a diary prop. The simulated leather cover is nice enough, but the effect is spoiled by a colorful Indiana Jones logo that's printed on the spine and a very unauthentic sticker with the book's description glued firmly to the back. The book is replete with inserts -- photographs, news clippings, documents, maps, etc. -- but they are all printed, which gives it a very stylized appearance. Granted, actual loose inserts would have driven up the price significantly, but the kind of person who is likely to buy this would probably pay extra for the added realism. Many of the pages have an annotation (shaped like a business card) by "The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation". These annotations add nothing to the journal and the fact that they're written in English ruins any intended feeling that this is a recovered document. Clearly, writing them in Russian would have been useless for most people, so they should have just left them out and let the journal contents speak for themselves. Lastly, the contents themselves are just random snippets and souvenirs arranged chronologically. There's no sense of direction or purpose, which is what makes this a scrap book rather than a journal, despite the attempt to make it look like the latter.

Even with all these little complaints, it's a fun little toy and well worth the $25. In fact, it's cheap enough that one could buy a second copy to cut out various inserts to create or supplement a realistic Jones journal.

Great, but...
Meant to be a reproduction of the journal given to him by his father in the first episode of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, this book chronicles some of the adventures of Indy from age 9 onward.
I was disappointed to see how little of the series was touched on in it, but happy to see some events from the 1990's novel series and the Dark Horse comics Fate of Atlantis included.
While this is a book I will definitely have lots of fun looking at while watching the films, it could very easily have been two or three times thicker.