My Five Cents

BookCrossing

If you compare your book collection to your paper offspring, take BookCrossing as them going away for college and never returning to you, yet still making you the acclompished parent you are.

If you consider yourself to be a book enthusiast, you certainly need to consider joining BookCrossing. By now, you properly have heard of this site or similar ones.




With this site, you can connect to a global community of readers who are "hunting" for books to be sent to them or who are "releasing" their books into the world for readers to find. "Releasing" is done by simply leaving your book at some corner of the globe. Whether it be your local coffee shop or the hotel you reside for your European vacation, you are assured that someday a lucky person will find that book. To make the journey of your book even more adventurous, you need to ensure its BookCrossing registration ID is inside the flap. That way, said lucky person can update the location of the book on the BookCrossing site.

If you are not a traveler or are simply skeptical of leaving your books unattended at a random location, you can simply just wait for someone to request it on BookCrossing or contact someone who you think may want it.

Initially, I found it a bit difficult to give up any of my books. It was an indigestible idea. Somewhat like that sensation you get in your mouth when you eat crackers and peanut butter. For me, I cannot even enter my room without admiring my filled bookshelf. Just the eye candy alone of the colorful spines and assorted designs makes me sigh in satisfaction. Despite my reluctance at first, I have now released two paperbacks to be sent to anyone who requests them.

I just received a book from a BookCrossing member who wanted to complete a challenge where she sends a book to every country in the world. I found it so ambitious when she contacted my email address after finding me on another site similar to BookCrossing. She is the reason I am even on this site.

Now I have a "Game of Thrones" on my computer desk. It is in a great condition - practically new. Better yet, I paid $0.00 for it. I cannot wait to re-release this book for another to read.

BookCrossing has been described as the "instant karma" among readers. If you are a reader with a bit of humantarian in you - if you want to make a world a better place by promoting literacy and reading - take a look at BookCrossing. Simply click the post picture to be directed to the spectacular site. If you are already a member, leave your link below so we can correspond.

That's just my five cents. What's yours?