A starter’s guide to BookCrossing
Dear Reader”, the blurb begins. “I hope you enjoy this book. I’ve registered it on Bookcrossing.org so that I can keep track of where it travels and what people thought of it. You can log in online and leave your thoughts, before passing it on to another reader.” And that’s about it.
Underneath, in her trademark spidery handwriting, is the book’s registration code. It’s Bookcrossing, summed up simply, in its best and cleverest concepts. Free books. Sharing. Travel.
We read a lot of crap. There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, crap is cheap. Crap is 45p on a newsagent shelf, or a £3.99 paperback sandwiched between memoirs of page three girls and Z-List rugby players, and containing something bizarre about a loveless ex-policeman on the run to clear his name or something.
Reading crap is also fun, though – JK Rowling was hardly TS Eliot, but her writing was fun enough for people of all ages to read. But sometimes, we have to avoid rubbish and go for something meatier. Something more enjoyable. Not boring, necessarily, or three inches thick. But good.
Fortunately, this isn’t too hard – for instance, you pick up Felix and flick immediately to the Arts section, where you absorb their well-respected opinion on the latest releases of the high society, and nod sagely at the words of their attractive and well-endowed editors.
There are two things at play here, that the founders of BookCrossing noticed. Firstly, that people will read almost anything if it’s free. Secondly, that sharing our opinion about books is great fun, for both the writer and the reader. After all, we’re not doing Felix for the paycheck.
So what if people just left books lying around for others to find? Giving books away for free is friendly, stops dusty piles of paper building up in the corner, and adds a bit of excitement into the day for those that find them. BookCrossing only marginally extended the idea of giving books away, by adding in a secret ingredient. A massive game of hide-and-seek.
It’s very simple – you sign up to BookCrossing.org and subscribe to whatever regions you’re near to. Kensington, for instance, is going to be easier for you to visit and pick up books in than somewhere in Oregon. Then, BookCrossing tells you when a book is going to be released in that area.
If you find the book (hints are left on the website to help you), you read it, review it on the site, and pick another place to leave it in – which in turn notified everyone else subscribing to the area you’re leaving it in. The books slowly travel the city, country or globe, picking up opinions as they go and often creating stories about their journey.
And if you find yourself with books you no longer want to hold onto, it’s very simple to start a journey yourself. Simply register the book with the site and they’ll give you a unique code and a little message to leave on the inside front cover (which we’ve printed above). Tell them where you’re going to leave the book, and when you’re roughly going to put it there, and just follow the timing.
More often than not, the books are taken but not registered. Because they’re more likely to be found by non-Bookcrossers, the idea of registering can be quite daunting, and doesn’t immediately appeal to the average reader. But sometimes you’ll be lucky, and start off an entire chain of reviews as a book travels from person to person and country to country.
Take the friend who’s given me my latest BookCrossing book, for instance. Her profile has one particular book that made nine journeys before coming to a rest. She gave it to a colleague in the bookshop where she works – from her, to her sister. To her boyfriend. To someone he met in France. To another friend – and each one of these left their messages on the same web page, letting others see where the book’s been on its travels.
Not everything is so successful. A month ago, I left six books in a cafe. They were all gone within a week, but none of them were registered on the website. But the messaging is just the icing on the philanthropic cake – free books were given, reading was done and a good time was had.
Now, Felix gets a lot of books. We review some, put others in features, and many we give away. This year, though, we’re going to BookCross them. They’ll be left at various places on campus or nearby landmarks (the Albert Memorial, or the museums for instance, which are popular with other local BookCrossers) and they’ll all be registered on BookCrossing.org. That’s free books, most of which are freshly published, ready to be picked up by willing readers!
We’ll post our releases in Felix as we decide on them, but to get up-to-the-minute information on the releases you’ll need to sign up with the site. To see what we’re putting into the wild this week, and what we’re planning to give away soon, check out the box on the right.
BookCrossing has a thriving community that share book reviews and stories of Crossing success, and while the alerts system isn’t always entirely accurate (we’ve had a lot of alerts that were three weeks late), there are a lot of releases in the Kensington area, ranging from classic fiction to cookbooks. It’s a novel way to experience new books, recycle old ones, and have yourself some very childish sort of fun whilst doing it.
If you’re BookCrossing in this area, get in touch with us and keep us informed about your releases – if we can, we’ll put them the paper alongside our own. If you’re not BookCrossing, get started now. We’ll be giving away a lot this year, and it’s the only way to get your hands on it!
