Peerside

One of my weaknesses is that I hate to dump books, sell them - fine, share them - ok but I just can't bring myself to dump a story. I'm also the type of person who can sink into a book when travelling and as a result I often find myself away from home with one or two finished books and trying to decide what to do with them. I used to leave the books in the hotel room hoping that the cleaners may find them useful but that was until recently when I saw a pile of books dumped in a skip outside a hotel in Dublin - horror !!!

So recently when I spotted mollydot releasing books via bookcrossing.com I decided that in the future I too would give my books freedom and release them into the wild. This morning I released my first book which can be viewed here , set free in the Sofitel lobby in Redwood City. Here's hoping someone else gets to enjoy it .. and if they dump it then let it be on their conscious, not mine !

Bookcrossing, for those of you unfamiliar with the activity, is a way to tag and share books through an online community Bookcrossing.com. As the web site describes itself:

Bookcrossing is away to share your books, clear your shelves, and conserve precious resources at the same time. Through our own unique method of recycling reads, BookCrossers give life to books. BookCrossing books are not stagnant dust collectors, but living entities travelling the world as true BookCrossing emmisaries. Our books find new readers and introduce them to the wonders of BookCrossing.

I'll blog some more on bookcrossing at some stage in the future, I find the idea intriguing and it intersects with an idea that has been nurturing in my subconscious for a number of years now about how we can efficiently combine book recycling with libraries, charities and social communities. More on that later. In the meantime - get out there and set those books free !