This weekend Allison and I were in New Hampshire and there was an article about BookCrossing.com. Allison read the article and then told me that I had to read it. I was glad that I did because this sounds like the perfect thing for me to do on my trips. What is BookCrossing.com all about….
Well, BookCrossing is “n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise. ” Pretty simple isn’t it. You take a book that you have read and you release it into the wild world. But BookCrossing.com helps you track the travels of that book all over the world. Fist you sign up with BookCrossing.com. Then you take one of the books that you have read and you register it into the BookCrossing.com website along with journal comments and you then receive a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and then you label the book. You can buy pre-made labels and Release packets, which include plastic bags to keep the book safe from the elements. You label your book and release it into the wild. You can do a random release where you just leave the book somewhere or you can do a controlled release where you hand the book directly to someone. Allison figured that this would be perfect for me since I travel all over the country and I read books like a fiend. I could leave books at hotels or restaurants or give them to airline attendants.
You can also leave clues in your release notes to give other bookcrossers clues to find your released book. When someone finds your released book they can go to the BookCrossing.com website and enter the BCID and add to the journal notes on that book. Instructions for people who have found books are on the label that you add to your released book. You can then go online and wait and see if someone found your book and where your book ended up.
I’d say you could leave them at airports but they may be considered strange and unattended packages and you might get in trouble, so if you are in the airport and want to release a book, I would recommend a controlled release.
If you are interested in joining BookCrossing.com today just sign up with my invitation code.
I plan to start doing this very soon, maybe even this weekend. I’ll let you know how it goes.
This is a great idea! It would be very nice to know that your book has gone somewhere else, in someone else’s hands. Just think about all the places it’ll get to go to, all the lives it’ll get to touch… Aww… I’m going to have to sign up for this soon!
This is a wonderful idea and I look forward to participating.
Yup, that’s a very nice idea! On the one had, you get to read totally unexpected stuff, and on the other hand you suddenly know what to do with all this books you’re never going to read again but which you didn’t want to put in the garbage. Good thing that tastes differ!
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Yep this is a good idea you can do many fun things with an idea like this and you can clear the clutter from your home and maybe meet some interesting people.