May 05, 2005

BookCrossing. Release your old books into the wild, and track their movements. Or find a book and send it on its way. It's becoming a popular way for authors to get their books read, too.

This was on the news here tonight, and I'm thinking it'll be a great, and fun, way to dispose of all my old books. A lot of people seem to organise swaps and meets to distribute books and get them on their way, but I think I'd prefer the more serendipitous approach of leaving them in a random spot and seeing where they go from there.

posted by tracicle 19 years ago
  • It was on NatRad (NatRad rocks, btw) - now I know where to get my posts from.
  • I got an account a while ago, but I don't think I've ever actually put out a book on general release, although I have swapped more with friends since I got it, oddly enough. I think my problem is that I want to keep books I liked, and I don't feel good about sending books I didn't like out into the wild. If I know my friend's taste, though, I can give her something I didn't like that she probably will.
  • Yeah, but where's George?
  • I think that "I didn't particularly like it, but someone will" grey area is where it's at. (For instance, I was kind of indifferent to Oryx and Crake, but I know a lot of people love it to death.) Though I can imagine loosing a second copy of a book that I like particularly well and want to give more exposure. I'm tempted, except that many of my "I might like this, maybe" grey-area books were bought used, and I don't know whether it's tacky to pass along used books. And I feel shy about leaving things, because people would run after me going "Hey, dumbass, you left this," and I'd be like "Um... it's... intentional, and... oh, never mind." And I have terrible taste in books anyway. Still. It's a really cool idea.
  • I found one in front of the museum where I used to work. It was a really terrible YA fantasy book, but I read it anyway, signed up, got all enthusiastic, left the damn book at my laundromat - and discovered that a) the headquarters of the local bookcrossing is across the street from my laundromat, so in effect I had just returned it, and b) they did not like my honest review of the book and seemed to feel that disliking it was tantamount to cruelty to children. So I bailed on the whole thing. YMMV.
  • I was once going to put together a geocache of books that had all been registered with Bookcrossing. Just never got around to it. I was going to place it around the old Domtar paper plant near the Don Valley Parkway, and call it Ashes to Ashes, and it would have been cool!
  • Give away books? Great - you're allowing people to STEAL the words of authors without paying the appropriate licence fees set by Jesus Christ himself when he wrote TRIPS. Then, these thieves can just spend their money on terrorism instead. And what happens when all the words have been stolen? What will we use to communicate - numbers? YOU PEOPLE NEVER FUCKING THINK.
  • 2215 6941 110445 3647800 755!!!!! damnit.
  • I've found two Bookcrossing books in the wild. Pretty neat.