... discover bookcrossing.com

You know very well that books don't like to get dog-eared, when they get those nasty turned-down corners of their pages. They also hate to get deserted on a bookshelf, not being touched by anybody for ages, save your roommate cleaning the dust.
This is why I like to say: give them legs, not ears!



I share mutual philosophy with bookcrossing.com, a web community where people (bookcrossers) are exchanging books and opinion. Some are competing against each other who is going to register and release more books, some are very fond of their lengthy reviews, while some like to get in touch with bookworms around the world, exchanging messages and talking bookish. Bookcrossing.com got international fast, and is now covering most parts of the world. The hype made it even to a dictionary, would you believe that:

bookcrossing
n. the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.
(-- added to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary in August 2004)

This is a simple answer to the question: What is bookcrossing? More details are naturally to be sought on the website.
A happy day in the life of a true bookcrosser looks like this:

1. He picks a fine book and reads it,
2. registers it on bookcrossing.com, leaves a journal comment, and gets a unique book identification code BCID for the book,
3. releases the book, either giving it to a friend or dropping it off somewhere in the wild (these wild releases are my favorite)
4. waits for an e-mail, informing him who has caught the book and what does he think about it.

That's it. It's easy, and exciting, right?
I can give credit to both. For I am a true bookcrosser. I've been eagerly bookcrossing since September 2002. Till today almost half a million bookcrossers have become members, having registered around 3 million books. I am one of them, and I've registered 63 books. I am not the only Slovene bookcrosser of course, there are many others. As far as I got to know them, they are all interesting people, each on their own; but of course, they read. I should mention now that bookcrossing.com is somewhat fortunate for us male readers, since the great majority of co-members is of female sex. Slovenia is no exception. I met some of them and I think you should meet them too: ajdica, Kana, Ruj, tanja and WhiteDwarfStar - to name just a few out of 200+. (Hint guys: Those linked are all highly literate, also pretty pretty and some are pretty witty. The road to their hearts winds through a mountain of books, mind that.)
The last figure of 200 I mentioned is not a lie, but in practice only some of the members are active. You could be one of them. That would be great.
And how would you like now to meet a guy too? His name is BoLe and that means me. There is BoLe yet again, or his bony fingers at least, in the picture on the left as he is pointing to the Sydney Opera House as the next release zone for Beach the book.

I must say I've been disappointed by the Slovene bookcrossing inactivity. I've put my membership on hold for some time. Yet my hopes are not completely disintegrated, for I believe that the bookcrossing fever will still get you. I believe in you.
However, I really don't get this stat:
- Slovenia. Population: 2M, members: 200
- USA. Population: 295M, members: 130,000

USA has 150 times the people as Slovenia but 650 times the members at the same time. The factor of 6.5/1.5 = 4 is what I don't understand. I think Slovenia is on average only slightly behind the USA in their technological development. True they have Google, Intel and Apple, and we have none of those, but I am talking about the relative number of internet users for example. The factor here is, what, 1.5 in favor of USA? But the factor of 4 is huge, and it is problematic. It led me to believe that the main cause behind the discrepancy is in different mentality. People in the USA just want to bookcross, and people here don't want to. This makes me sad. At the same time this looks like a great advantage of my moving to the States. I am not thinking merely of all that greater number of woman bookcrossers, I am talking about a real bookcrossing community: they are getting together all the time there, exchanging books like madmen, organizing bookish parties, going on long hiking trips around the country and beaches, and reading to each other whilst resting, and so on and on, and all this sounds so exciting that I am seriously inclining to that move.
Or perhaps you could save this brain drain?



So tell me: since you are well aware that books can't stand dust or getting dog-eared, why don't you release them? Give them legs, set them free, and see what will become of them. Perhaps they will find an adventure of their own, what they deserve. I dare say both of you will be more happy. Ease the pain, make their neuroses supportable!

You could also reply to this offer. I am just reading a pack of Roald Dahl's books:
- a children book, The Vicar of Nibbleswicke,
- and two rarer gems of his adult books (picture on the left shows also Kiss Kiss and My Uncle Oswald).
They are all registered on bookcrossing.com and as soon as I read them through, I will either:
a) give them back to ajdica or
b) set them on a journey to you, or
c) give them back to ajdica alright, only so she will give them to you.
How does that sound? In any case, you should drop a comment, or mail me at moc.liamg@97elob (- reverse that).

This would make me very happy, igniting interests in fresh new bookcrossers.