Bookcrossing

[Guest guest]

Jerry posted this on NDHighlights and I thought it was a really cool

idea, so I am forwarding it to the group, even though some of you may

have already seen it :-) It was posted by Mary Bianco, NDS News...

A friend of mine discovered bookcrossing.com at a local cafe. She

found a book there. It's such a great idea! Mary...

Yes, Mary, it is!!! Thanks for sharing it.

http://www.oregonlive.com/metroeast/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_east_news/1064923063178480.xml

Strangers find the odd free book

An Internet service called BookCrossing encourages readers to leave

books where others can find them

09/30/03

MELISSA L. JONES

FAIRVIEW -- At 6 p.m. on a quiet Wednesday night, a copy of

"Siddhartha" leaned against the doorway of the Reynolds School

District office.

A fluorescent note on the front of the book read, "I'm not lost. Read me."

It was a board meeting night, and Renee Sessler picked up the book.

"It would be good for me to read this," said the board chairwoman, as

she tucked Hermann Hesse's book about the search for the meaning of

life onto her stack of school board notes.

The book had been discreetly and carefully placed where someone was

bound to come across it. Inside the front cover of the book was a

message that asked the finder to read it and post any thoughts about

it at BookCrossing.com.

The idea was hatched and the Web site started in 2001 by Ron

Hornbaker, president of a Missouri software company. Its aim is to

get people to share books and ideas through a global, online book

club.

The Web site says 167,000 members have released more than half a

million books into the unknown. Members all over the world leave

books in subways, mail them to strangers or strategically place them

where passersby will see them.

The site has spawned BookCrossing meetings and books that are written

as people find them and add to them. The site lists "Official

Crossing Zones," places more likely to host a left-behind book. (In

Gresham, Mt. Hood Community College is one such spot.)

Janet Mandaville, a 63-year-old Portlander, said she's released seven

books between Oregon and Australia. She's found a book of Robert

Frost poems.

She affixes labels into the books with her personal message and an

identification number so that finders can post their comments online.

 

"When someone finds a book you get an e-mail that says, 'Guess where

your book is now?' " said Mandaville, a retired technical writer." I

just think it's such an incredible idea -- make the world a library."

 

Wayne Standiford, 55, an electrician who lives in Condon, used the

site to market a book he wrote about Vietnam. He dropped a copy of

"Bury Me With Soldiers" at a radio station and mailed a second copy

to Australia. The Australian recipient reviewed the book online and

then freed the book at Australia's Vietnam memorial.

"He gave me seven stars out of 10," Standiford said.

For Sessler, the Reynolds board chair who found "Siddhartha," the book

came at the perfect time. For the past few years, she has been

exploring different religions, and the book's themes speak to what's

been on her mind.

"I'm reading it. I'm intrigued," she said. "I've been trying to ponder

where I'm going to leave it. I wonder who left it at Reynolds and who

they were hoping they can reach."

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