I've been Bookcrossing!

I joined Bookcrossing.com years and years ago and released many books into the wild as I cleared through my rather large library as I eventually learned to appreciate that I couldn't keep everything!  That time has come again, and after a massive shift of all my novels, food and travel books from their spacious and comfortable home in the front hall to various other locations I have plucked out a few tomes which are surplus to my requirements.  Halfway through bagging them up for charity I remembered my past passion for Bookcrossing and changed my tack.

So I have resurrected my old Bookcrossing Bookshelf and have this morning registered six of my many books.  To register a book all you have to do is enter the ISBN number (or title or author) in the the little form and when your book shows up you click 'register' and are given a unique number which is to be applied to that particular book.  You can just write in inside or you can print out little book-plates with the BC logo or you can do as I have which is to visit the BC store and purchase lovely printed book-plates, bookmarks, post it notes to make your books look pretty.  I bought a load of kit years ago and I've plenty left I've also been putting one of my business cards inside each.  Then you leave your book in the wild to be found by someone who will read the lable and follow the simple instrucions to go to the website, enter the unique code for the book and just say that they've found it.  Then if they want to pass it on to someone else, or leave it in the wild, they go back to the book's little page online and say where it will be left.  That way books can travel the world and all the people who have read it can follow it's journey.  The best travelled book (Hoffnung's Constant Readers by Gerard Hoffnung.) has passed through the hands of 526 people which I think is pretty impressive!

I delivered my first batch of six to a lovely little cafe down the road called Silver Apples on Orchard Street (read my review here), they were gratefully recieved - I'd actually forgotten that they have a book club, so that can only be a good thing!

There are a few more cafes locally who will be the lucky recipients of my over purchasing and I'll have to think of a few other places too.  I hope they are picked up in the spirit of Bookcrossing and that the new owners go to the site and register the books and I can follow where they go.

Here's a little snapshot of my pile of books on my desk waiting to be delivered.....