Have you seen a wandering book lately?

I have recently come across a very interesting innovation. The idea is to release your books into the wild for others to find and read and release again. A sort of global free library if you like. If you find a book labelled "This is a bookcrossing book" or" Please take me home, I'm a bookcrossing book" or something similar, look inside the cover. There you will find another label with a bcid (book crossing identity) number and a website address, bookcrossing.com.

It seemed to me such a simple way of sharing my books with others that I started to register a few books, and the next time I went out shopping, I left a few around Central Milton Keynes. This is a quote from the website:

'It's a global book club that crosses time and space. Do you like free books? Well, the books our members leave in the wild are free but it's the act offreeing books that points to the heart of BookCrossing. Book trading has never been more exciting, more serendipitous, than with BookCrossing. Our goal, simply, is to make the whole world a library. BookCrossing is a book exchange of infinite proportion, the first and only of its kind. Here at BookCrossing.com you'll find tens thousands of book reviews, book ratings, and book recommendations, because each time a book changes hands, our members can leave journal entries telling the world of their experiences.'

If you find a bookcrossing book you can do one of two things. You can register at the website (at home, at school or in the library) and leave a journal entry about the book, saying where you found it and what you think of it, or if you have no internet access, you can simply take the book home and read it. When you've read it you can release it into the wild again, anywhere you like; give it to someone, friend, colleague, relation; leave it somewhere, on a bus, cafe table, park bench; even send it by post to someone you know would enjoy it.

It doesn't cost you a penny to join bookcrossing, but if you're like me and love to read, think of the pleasure of finding a book, and releasing it again for another booklover to find and enjoy.

Please have a look at the internet address:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/

...where you can find out everything you want to know about bookcrossing.com. You can even take a look at where in Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes

Happy reading!
Alison Mead

" Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read"
-Groucho Mark.