Bookcrossing: Good Book Karma

I have been a Bookcrosser on and off for 8 years. I tend to go through phases when I do a lot of Bookcrossing and phases when I do none. Since recently sorting out my bookshelf I’m on a bit of an on phase at the moment. While today I was registering books and it suddenly occurred to me, I should do a post on Bookcrossing. I really don’t know why the thought had never occurred to me before.

Bookcrossing is basically a way of sharing books with the world. A Bookcrosser will register a book on The Bookcrossing Website before passing it on, or (and this is where it gets fun!) leaving it somewhere for someone to find. Within each book will be contained a little note saying where the book has come from, what Bookcrossing is and with a BCID (or BookCrossing IDentification). Once someone has read the book they enter the BCID on the website and leave a note saying what they thought about the book and where they are sending it next. In this way one book can be shared all around the world!

I love leaving books all over the place and imagining who might pick them up. I especially like to put books in a place where I can watch (e.g. another table in a cafe, a different seat on the bus) and see who picks it up, who looks at it, who takes it. There’s a certain thrill to it, especially when it’s a book you want to share with the world. What I love the most is when I hear back from a book, unfortunately it doesn’t happen as often as I would like, but maybe that’s what makes it special. I’ve had some really nice comments back too.

There was:

The Dutch girl who read her first book in English

The woman who found the book the day before she moved to Spain

The girl who found a new author

I’ve tried to do a few funky releases too. I left Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in a branch of Thorntons for one. My favourite though is the book I released by balloon (I just wish I had heard back from it!). I’m also a fan of releasing favourite books, I am on somewhat of a mission to release all the Harry Potter books (I’ve only got Deathly Hallows to go), and I’ve released a few copies of Captain Correli’s Mandolin, plus copies of Birdsong. I figure if you’re going to share a book you may as well share one you love.

I’ve found books from Bookcrossing too, which is just as exciting. This is the first one I found….as I was leaving another Bookcrossing book! There are such things as Official BookCrossing Zones (it’s where I found Big Fish and Olivia Joules) but while they are a good way to know that your book will be picked up by someone who values it I find it lacks the excitement of a wild release.

You can find me on Bookcrossing as Lucy-bird.

Find out more about Bookcrossing:

The Bookcrossing Website

Wikipedia

Guardian Article

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