Book Crossing

[Mad Kestrel]

Hi ladies,
I was just noticing the large number of people bemoaning their lack of storage space for all their books, so I wanted to mention a group I've joined. It's called Book Crossing, and the idea is that instead of forcing books to live on our shelves, in cpativity, we should release them inot the wild to be read by other kindly book-adorers!

Of course, don't give away the books you can't live without (and boy, do I have a few of those!) but when you release a book via BookCrossing, you can track its progress all over the world.

Check it out, and tell 'em Captain Kestrel sent ye! :kiss:
www.bookcrossing.com

[Meg Hille]

hey, that's pretty cool! I just found a few books via the website search in my town that I've been looking to read. And, like most of us here, I've got big ole shelves full of books that should probably be passed on to someone else now. This is a great idea!

[Mad Kestrel]

I'm having the best time releasing books into the wild! I just did another one today. :D

[Bonnie]

only problem with that is that I cling to my books. I have a really really hard time giving them away, trading them....I have ALMOST every book I've ever owned. And looking at them, I realize I slacked off in the last couple of years when it comes to purchasing. hmm....bad me...time to make it up to myself.

[Ysobelle]

only problem with that is that I cling to my books. I have a really really hard time giving them away, trading them....I have ALMOST every book I've ever owned. And looking at them, I realize I slacked off in the last couple of years when it comes to purchasing. hmm....bad me...time to make it up to myself.


I'm with you, baby. I can't let go of books-- to me, they're like...like useable wealth. Money doesn't do you any good if you keep it-- unless you want to impress someone on a useless Fox reality show. Books, on the other hand, give back to you all the time. When I finally own my own house, I WILL have a library. Yummm...booooooooks!

[Bonnie]

I actually have this belief that books have personalities and a life of their own. I always feel sad for really good books in used book stores. I've seen 100 year old classics at this one store...on sale for next to nothing...inscriptions inside, wishing their first owner many years of enjoyment, news clippings, children's scribbles extolling the virtues of the book...I try to imagine their lives. I have a whole shelf here of old classics...some of whom I talked to as we drove home. I reassured them they'd always have a home with me.

OK...that's freaky, I know, but some books just demand love. I have this one book...A Secret Garden...and it just LEAPT out at me. A child had inscribed his/ her love of the book in it at some point, and for whatever reason, I knew this book was going home with me, and that it NEEDED to go home with me. I swear we had a conversation.

So I am weird. Sue me. My books got me through some of the darkest times of my life. i think it natural I anthropomorphisize them.

[Leela]

I actually have this belief that books have personalities and a life of their own. I always feel sad for really good books in used book stores. I've seen 100 year old classics at this one store...on sale for next to nothing...inscriptions inside, wishing their first owner many years of enjoyment, news clippings, children's scribbles extolling the virtues of the book...I try to imagine their lives. I have a whole shelf here of old classics...some of whom I talked to as we drove home. I reassured them they'd always have a home with me.

OK...that's freaky, I know, but some books just demand love. I have this one book...A Secret Garden...and it just LEAPT out at me. A child had inscribed his/ her love of the book in it at some point, and for whatever reason, I knew this book was going home with me, and that it NEEDED to go home with me. I swear we had a conversation.

So I am weird. Sue me. My books got me through some of the darkest times of my life. i think it natural I anthropomorphisize them.


Bonnie, I just have to say that I really really like you. :)

I know EXACTLY what you mean...your home is a lovely place for books to be! I have half of my library in storage right now, :sigh: and I am joyously swimming in my favourites in our tiny apartment...so the library has recently become my friend once again.

Sometimes I'll open up one of my old books just to smell it...don't you just love that smell?

I recently got my paws on a first edition of "Two Little Pilgrims' Progress" (by our "Secret Garden" author)

inscribed in graphite to:
K. Louise Patterson
from
Aunt Louise
Jan 11, 1896

There's history there...books definately have a life of their own!

Leela
Bibliophile and proud of it!

[Bonnie]

My Secret Garden book has a name plate inside with the name Martha Ann Barron on it. It's copyright is 1911. On the last page, right under "The End", is this inscription...judging by the handwriting, the writer was a girl in elementary school ... no older than twelve.

"This book is my favorite book. It is marvelous. It is wonderful. It Is The Best Book I Ever Read." (sic)

I saw that and melted. I remembered the feeling I got as a child when a book touched me for the first time. Watership Down still does it to me. Saw that writing and the book was MINE. I remember telling it that it was going home now, and actually feeling like I was rescuing it.

I found an ancient copy of Rip Van Winkle (Profusely Illustrated) The pages are brittle and dark yellow, and a news clipping of the Concord Hymn was tucked inside. Beautiful writing inside says "Josephine Mangrooth, Her Book" There is no copyright date.

Inside the back cover is a new clipping of a poem "Talking In"

The goop who makes me lose
my patience
Is she who joins in conversa-
tions
And talks of subjects which,
no doubt,
She doesn't know a thing
about!
She seems to think that rule
absurd
That "Children should be
seen not heard!"

So many old books. So much pleasure they bring to folk throughout their lives. I kinda see myself as an old book retirement home.

[Leela]

I found an ancient copy of Rip Van Winkle (Profusely Illustrated) The pages are brittle and dark yellow, and a news clipping of the Concord Hymn was tucked inside. Beautiful writing inside says "Josephine Mangrooth, Her Book" There is no copyright date.

Inside the back cover is a new clipping of a poem "Talking In"

The goop who makes me lose
my patience
Is she who joins in conversa-
tions
And talks of subjects which,
no doubt,
She doesn't know a thing
about!
She seems to think that rule
absurd
That "Children should be
seen not heard!"

So many old books. So much pleasure they bring to folk throughout their lives. I kinda see myself as an old book retirement home.

That's what it is...!
That Rip Van Winkle (I'm printing out that poem from the back) are the illustrations by Arthur Rackham?

Leela
who also has a special place for "The Secret Garden"

[Bonnie]

Doesn't say, actually. The book was published by the W.B. Conkey Company in Chicago.

Som of the illustrations have the initials 'C' or 'G'.B. on them, and others have W. Spielmeyer (or close to that)

others are Gordon P...something...

I don't think it's a particularly special book....it's just old and smelly and lovely.

[Nevada]

One of the most heartbreaking thinfs I had to do this past year was to sell some of my cherished books so I could afford gas money...

[jmthane]

Yes, I may bemoan the lack of space, but being a woodworker - I can build more space for books. Selling them hurts.

[Pearl_Fox]

It would just be way to hard for me to give up my books. I dont' know. but then there are some..... :thinking: maybe someday

[Mad Kestrel]

I use Book Crossing mainly to unload books I didn't like, or have no interest in keeping. The ones I love don't even get to leave the house! I have a friend who buys about two dozen books a month, reads them once and dumps the lot on my doorstep. Which would be cool except that he and I do NOT read the same kind of books, and the ones he gives me rarely grab my attention.

But I've also been having fun going to the used book shop, buying copies of books I adore and releasing them, so that others can discover the great authors I DID like.

Try it or don't - I just thought some ladies might find it as interesting as I did. :)

[Bonnie]

Oh I think it's a GREAT idea...I should have said that in my first post...bad me. I LOVE the idea. I'm just too book crazy to do it. You rock, and that site rocks....it's terribly clever...and spreading world wide, so it seems.

seems like it'd be fun to do, too. I'm just not that community minded I suppose. :)

[Morte]

Sometimes I'll open up one of my old books just to smell it...don't you just love that smell?



I was going to post about book smell but you beat me to it! my friend lea and i like to go to used book stores and libraries to smell the books sometimes..and certain of my favorite books have identifiable scents! i'm so glad we aren't alone in our weird little habit *g*

i dont think i could ever give up 95% of my books but this book release ma-dealie is a very cool idea for those who can bear the parting!