I’ve been a member for a while of the site bookcrossing.com, but today I set my first book free! Bookcrossing is an online database of books that have been read, logged, and then placed in release spots in your area to find another reader. It’s international and release spots can be anywhere from a cafe, a supermarket or a dentist’s waiting room. If all goes well, and about 25% of the released books get found, then the next reader can enter a journal entry on the book, and pass it on.
I chose H.G. Wells’ The First Men in the Moon and released it on Western Road at the bus stop outside the Nero. I felt a bit suspicious, like I was planting a bomb but hopefully someone will pick it up, read the note on the inside cover and take it home. I’ve also signed up for alerts for other books released in Brighton and Hove so hopefully I shall be able to catch a new one soon! It’s free to sign up and participate and I feel it’s a perfect way to make sure books don’t sit around languishing on your shelves but get read more than once.
ooh, sounds fascinating! i’ll join up and see how it goes. i quite like the idea of leaving some Liber Malorum’s or Principia Discordia’s about the place.
hugs from sean