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January 08, 2008
BookCrossing.com
Read a book. Leave it in a public place. Post its location and let people go after it like the scavenger hunters at heart that they are. Leave a book, take a book. Let others who don't even know what the program is find the books and happily share knowledge and entertainment.
That is the concept behind BookCrossing.com, a site that claims over 4 million registered books already. A New York Times article about the service, by someone who lives near me, was written a few weeks ago. It's a fun concept, and if you're the type who's into geocaching, then this might be for you too.
January 8, 2008 | Permalink
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Comments
Our children's department has a "Read and Release" program going on that uses Bookcrossing with a number of books they specifically bought for this purpose.
Posted by: Meg | January 8, 2008
It's funny that you mention geocaching - bookcrossing is actually how I was introduced to geocaching, and 1500+ caches and four years later, it's still my favorite hobby. Bookcrossing still hasn't caught on around here the way I thought it would, but I still love the idea. I'd like to set up a "crossing zone" in my library....
Posted by: Jessica | January 9, 2008
Thanks! I registered and released into the wild a copy of Dashiell Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, which we are currently reading for our NEA Big Read program. Neat!
Posted by: Mike | January 9, 2008
A few years ago, my library registered 40 copies of our One City One Book title with BookCrossing and released them around town. (These were in addition to the library copies, so you didn't have to be a library card holder to participate in the city read program.) We put a One City One Book sticker on each cover, and a library bookplate inside. The library webmistress reports that people are still logging those copies!
Posted by: Jacqui | January16, 2008
