Last month I wrote about the Web phenomenon known as BookCrossing and you will notice the LINK in the sidebar.
It is there because I love the idea of this site and joined myself.
This is a follow-up.
BookCrossings members love books enough to let them go.
The idea is to release them "into the wild" to be found by other Bookworms.
Book Sharing is fun, in all its more familiar forms, such as donating to your former school, passing a cherished book down through the generations and other ways, but there is a new way that is very exciting, thoughtful and even quite challenging.
BookCrossing has a goal:
Simply, to make the whole world a library. BookCrossing is a book exchange of infinite proportion, the first and only of its kind.
You know the feeling you get after reading a book that speaks to you, that touches your life, a feeling that you want to share it with someone else? BookCrossing.com gives you a simple way to share books with the world, and follow their paths forever!
The rules are simple:
1. Read a book, or not! I have a chosen mission in which a spend a few dollars a month rescueing very old books from thrift store, yard sales, or library sales.
2. Register it, with an intro about what you thought of it if you read it. Even rate it.
I include a picture, links to any info I learn online about the author and publisher, and info about any thing written, or left in the book.
3. "Release" the little darling back into "circulation". (I take pictures of most of the places I leave a book for inclusion in journal entries.)
Release it for someone else to read ( leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, "forget" it in a coffee shop, the possibilities are endless), and get notified by email each time someone comes to BC and records journal entries for that book. And if YOU make Release Notes on the book, others can Go "Hunting" for it and try to find it!
It's an intriguing experiment in fate, or whatever one cares to call what happens between people and their encounters with a book.
You don't even have to reveal your true identity to the public.
On the main page of the site people can see recent "releases" and recently "caught" titles,including the people who did each, then click on links to learn more, about that books journey and the people who have been releasing and finding the book. Even their history of finds and releases.
There is even a lively Community on the site with forums, e-mail Lists, Meet-ups and Official Crossing Zones.
This last is a fascinating concept:
Do you have a favorite cafe, coffee shop, bookshop, laundromat, classroom, or other location that would make a perfect place for people to release and find books on a permanent basis? If so, you can possibly start a Crossing Zone there and watch it grow.
And that brings me back to the Sean Hannity World Tour.
My last post was the exciting, risk-filled, story of how I rescued a book by Sean from oblivion.
What follows is the rest of the adventure.
The time had come to allow Sean's book to continue its journey.
My own contribution to the ongoing Hannitization of America and the World! ;-D
On a rainy March 2005 day I grabbed my umbrella and headed south, by bus, and train, with a mission to complete deep in the heart of San Diego.
An acquaintance with a military backround had the perfect suggestion.
His advice:
If you want to guarantee that your book will end up in "friendly" hands, I've got a failsafe location for you:
"Welcome to McP’s Irish Pub and Grill established in 1982. McP’s is owned and operated by former Navy SEAL, Greg McPartlin. We are very proud of our military heritage here in Coronado, so please raise your glass to men and women in uniform you may occasionally see in here during lunch or dinner."
This is the unofficial bar of the US Navy SEALs. You will find no bleeding heart liberals here.
They have good beer, too!
My reaction?
What a Brilliant idea! :-D
Friendly hands plus a better chance of a world tour to boot!
Fate being what it is there would be no guarantee that, somewhere down the line, Sean wouldn't end up in the hands of a Liberal, but I truly believed that if said person is a bookworm then one of 3 things would happen:
1. The person would leave the book where they found it.
2. The person would take the book, follow its instructions, except for reading the book and I would learn of its latest stop in its journey.
3. or, the person may actually read the book, before following the rest of the instructions (Including a scathing review as part of their release journal entry!, heh, heh).
So that's how I found myself spending nearly $18 for a wonderful, filling, lunch, washed down by a glass of Guinness Stout.
I arrived at 1:15pm and, at around 2:15pm, after the dishes had been removed and my bill settled, I surreptitiously set ol' Sean on the table, nearly completely hidden, I hoped, from the waitress (Maybe my tip distracted her and a Navy man, or woman, was her next customer in the booth!), by the menu which was near the edge of the table closest to the wall of my booth and walked out without a 2nd glance.
Sean Hannity, in the form of his book LET FREEDOM RING has embarked on what I hope will be a long and very exciting, journey.
As of this writing he has yet to be heard from even once, but that is no reason to be discouraged.
Why?
Because books first set free as far back as 2002, when BookCrossing was born, have been journaled for the 1st time a year, 2, 3, 4, even 5 years later, sometimes across the state from their release location, sometimes across the country and even, in a few amazing cases, in another country entirely!
How they got to the place where they were found by the one who finally journaled them is a mystery.
THAT is the fun and intrigue of BookCrossing. ;-D
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