BookCrossing.com

Set Your Books Free! Then Watch Them Travel the World through BookCrossing.com

You've read a book you loved, liked, hated. Whatever. You'd love to share it with another. If you're like me, your books are piled up on the floor. Each time a loved one comes to visit, she mutters about your need for more bookshelves, academics who have no space for guests to sit, and fire hazards from the floor to the ceilings.

BookCrossing.com provides Internet space for you to register your books online, journal them (describe them, talk about your interest in them, and critique or evaluate them) and then release them to other people.

Wild Releases mean you release them into the wild: you journal your book, label it as "free not lost", announce where you're leaving it, and ask the finder to register your book, so you can watch it travel around the world.

There are book rings and book rays as well, allowing groups of people all around the world to share their books. And wish lists that tell you who dreams of the books you no longer want or just want to give away.

It's a lovely way to trade books with folks all over the place. Lots of people have done it here in Gainesville already. I'd love to see our libraries get in on the act. Lets make our libraries a Crossing Zone! And maybe later an Official BookCrossing Zone!