Have you heard of releasing a book into the wild? It is when you leave a book in a public place to be claimed by some lucky random person, there is a message in the book asking for the stranger to re-release the book when they have read it. If you register with the "book crossing" website, you can track where the book goes.
I love the idea and i also wonder whether many random book finders are up for playing the game. I am about to find out.
In my ongoing attempt to beat clutter I have selected a number of books for re-homing and what better to do with them than free them to the workings of serendipity? I have ordered cute stickers to put on the books explaining what to do with them and how to register them for global tracking, now i just have to wait for the stickers and figure out where to free the books.
I had a number of childrens books that a freecycler was interested in picking up until she realised that they were above the ability level of her boys so i am considering releasing some childrens books as well, wouldnt that be a wonderful thing for a kid to take an interest in?
Where might you release a book?
Might you put a handwritten message in it?
What a cool idea! By the way, how were the books? I know the story of Snow Falling on Cedars, though I am ashamed to admit I have not actually read it. Not sure how I would feel reading about the “lives” of cadavers, but The Girl Made of Dust is a very captivating title! :)
ReplyDeleteIt is a long time since I read Snow Falling on Cedars but as I remember it was quite good, the Girl made of Dust was a quick, easy little read, a story of a child in a war zone. I liked it. The lives of cadaveres was a great book for a CSI/ science nerd to read :)
ReplyDeleteAn artist friend in Miami was among a group who did similar with sketches. By all accounts the idea was well received.
ReplyDeletethats a great way to make art accessible to everyone!
ReplyDeleteIt is a brilliant idea but I do not go to many places where I can do this. What I did recently was to donate all my fiction books to a Senior Citizens group who had been asking for such donations. I will shortly address my non fiction library to cull some more to get the library ready for new acquisitions.
ReplyDeleteRamana,
ReplyDeleteIdeally (from a storage point of view) i would never have new acquisitions but thats just not feasible!
I dont know of any place that wants books and apart from the ones i think are suitable for release, i have quite a few others to find homes for
I would like to release some of my atheist magazines, but have yet to figure out where best to do it.
ReplyDeletePeople here in the U.S. sometimes put a tracking website address on dollar bills so one can keep up with where they go.
put the atheist magazines in the most hypocritical church you know of?
ReplyDeleteI would have to attend to get inside, and I worry that it would be a waste anyway.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of releasing a book to someone else who will appreciate it - or a whole string of people. But I don't quite see the point of tracking the book indefinitely, except out of idle curiosity. Why not just let it go where it goes?
ReplyDeleteMaybe a coffee shop would be a good place to release a few books - with the shop's agreement of course.
the reason to track it is curiosity! and maybe a sense of community?
ReplyDeleteKylie, I can't find how to follow your blog. I have emailed, but have been told your email is no more :(
ReplyDeletegary,
ReplyDeleteat this stage i have no clue how you can follow it but i'll see if i can sort it out. meanwhile my email is taikylie@yahoo.com.au
thanks for visiting!
I just want to know
ReplyDeleteI am definitely not anti Christian
As long as they are not anti john gray x
john,
ReplyDeletei knew that!
Our local library does that.
ReplyDeleteI pass a lot of books on to Friends of the Library. They sell them for a nominal fee and give the money to the library.
ReplyDeleteCM & snow,
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know libraries here dont take donations of used books but i have to admit i dont usually go to libraries :)