Eirik Newth wrote about bookcrossing.com, a brilliant project which coordinates the release of books – you read a book, register it at bookcrossings, write a brief review of it, print out a label and glue it into the book, then you give it to charity or “forget” it in a cafÈ. The finder will (hopefully) read the label and register the finding at the website, and you’ll be notified by email. What a wonderful idea! Though most of the books appear to have been mailed round to other bookcrossers rather than found. I’m in a decluttering mood (uh, it might have to do with that Flylady thing) and releasing some books would be perfect! [update: Torill actually blogged this last June. I suppose I must have read it then but not quite read it? Oh well.]


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4 thoughts on “releasing books

  1. Liz

    Very cool idea. Will need to try it here.

    And the flylady thing cracked me up…we really are alike in many ways! I subscribed to flylady a couple of months ago, with the best of intentions, but haven’t followed up. The mail is collecting in a separate mailbox, which I empty (guiltily) periodically. Maybe I’ll try this summer, and see if we can get a routine going.

    I think the thing that threw me is we have an awful kitchen sink; enamel, not stainless, with rusted spots. It’s not going to be shining in this lifetime. So to start flylady, we first have to replace our sink, which is a pretty major mental roadblock. <sigh>

  2. Jill

    That’s so funny that you’re a flylady subscriber too, though, Liz – I actually HAVE shined my kitchen sink but I’m not sure how long that will last… I think I’m having a bit of a housekeeping fix right now because it’s an area where I *can* have a certain amount of control, whereas the thesis and research and teaching and jobs and all is seeming a bit much right now…

    And this week my daughter’s with her dad. Keeping a shipshape house is a LOT easier when you’re the only person in it…

  3. H.

    Anyone find a link to Nordic-countries labels? I would like to trade with Swedish and Finnish books, but it seems sort of pointless to “release” these into “the wild” labeled in English.

  4. andersja's blog

    BookCrossing.com
    This is an incredibly good idea for sharing books you’ve read and don’t plan to read again: donate them to the public domain & track their travels 🙂

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