Share a little book

I'm utterly hooked on books. I have been known to place two Amazon orders within 24 hours of each other and I have run out of shelf space in my office - the overflow is piling up on the windowsill. My big problem is that there is something so inviting about a new book, I just can't resist starting it immediately. This means I have varying number of books 'in progress' at any time. I've come to realise that this isn't necessarily a problem - its just the way I read.

In his blog yesterday, Seth Godin asked readers of his book, The Dip, to double its readership by lending it to someone else. Since I've already done that, I can't do it just at the moment, although I'm very happy to do so again and again in the future.

Seth's request reminded me to write about Bookcrossings. Bookcrossings is a web-based system of sharing books and letting people know what books you have available, and where they can find them. The idea of 'releasing' a book into the wild for someone else to read is really cool. Its one of the best ideas I've heard of in a long time. We like it so much that we set up a Bookcrossing drop point in our shop and its been a great success. Customers come in for a coffee or for lunch, browse, pick up a book and take it home to finish it. Our only problem is that in less than a month, we've had to find a second bookshelf. As with Seth's suggestion of lending The Dip to someone else, our Bookcrossing shelves in the shop don't make any money - but they add something special and they spread knowledge and pleasure. That has to be a good idea.

I have to remember to stay away from the Bookcrossings shelf in the shop though - can you imagine how high the pile on the windowsill would be? I'll go and have a browse once I've finished all the books I'm reading at the moment - could take a while.

(I've just checked BookCrossings, and there are two copies of The Dip currently in the wild - one in Montreal and one in Lansdale, Pennsylvania. The book gets a great endorsement from the readers (8 out of 10). So if you're in Montreal or Pennsylvania, you may want to go hunting.)

Comments

[Brian Carl]

You can also try using http://www.bookmooch.com/
Its a site for trading books to others and is free to use.

[Vandy Massey]

Great reference. Thanks Brian. I had a look at the site and its a good idea. Very interesting to drill down into which books are most requested and which are most available. An indication of a shift in reading patterns perhaps?