I love to read!

A recent New York Times article that I quoted in “I am Afflicted with Wanderlust”  – “Solo In Paris” by Stephanie Rosenbloom has a quick paragraph about discovering a book at a museum that intrigued me;

“I had taken the book, by Patricia Wentworth, because I recognized the sticker on the cover: www.Bookcrossing.com, a website that encourages people to read, register and hide books in the world for others to find. For years I had wanted to discover one. Later, when I went on the site to register that I had the book, there was a message from its former, anonymous owner: “This book was not lost,” it said in French, “it was found for a new reader.””

I love to read and have loved books since I was a child. One of my favorite pastimes was spending time in our little towns old library; checking out books, learning new things and bugging the librarian. We lived just 4 short blocks from the library until I was 9 and we moved to the country. It was almost like my second home and is one of the cherished memories from my youth.

So I had to check out the site.

“What is BookCrossing?”

“It’s the World’s Library. It’s a smart social networking site. It’s a celebration of literature and a place where books get new life. BookCrossing is the act of giving a book a unique identity so, as the book is passed from reader to reader, it can be tracked and thus connecting its readers. There are currently 1,199,724 BookCrossers and 10,296,948 books travelling throughout 132 countries. Our community is changing the world and touching lives one book at a time.”

I am so excited to find this site, I love to share my books and get recommendations from others and this is a whole new way to share, review, connect and discover. The picture at the top is of the custom bookplate I created on the site. It was super easy and purchasing them from the site helps support the site. They have tons of really cool ones that you can get or really simple straightforward ones. I included a link to mine in the picture if you are interested in my creation with my Maddie dog on it.

I can’t wait to release my first book. In searching the site it looks like there are about a half dozen books in my little town in Olympia so I will be on the lookout. You can check out their “Go Hunting” section for free and go hunting for a book in your community too.

I will share more about my first release and any successful catches along the way.

Have you ever caught or released a book with Bookcrossing? What’s your story?