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SAN JUAN ISLAND LIBRARY |
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Catch and Release
Bookcrossing: the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise. -- Concise Oxford English Dictionary Hmm, sounds interesting, huh? Lately and for whatever reason I keep coming across this bookcrossing thing. Apparently it’s been around since 2001 and even made it into the OED, but I have somehow managed to miss it all this time. So finally when I couldn’t ignore it any longer I went to their Web site to see what it’s all about. Basically this is a way people share books and socially network online. Using their language the idea is you register a book and then set it free into the wild. The folks at Bookcrossing suggest potential drop spots such as benches, coffee shops, hotels, gym locker rooms. Someone else then catches the book, reads it, and releases it back into the wild. Throughout this process you go to the Web site and track your book’s journey around the world! What exactly happens is largely left up to chance. I have to admit it does sound pretty fun. When I looked there were 645,279 registered members in over 130 countries worldwide and 4,584,881 registered books with numbers constantly growing. I haven’t actually registered, but I am considering it. Maybe I’ll wait until I catch a book. Along that line of thinking, I looked to see if I could catch a book on-island, but no. There is not a currently registered book in the wild on our island. There is one in Mt. Vernon but I’m not planning on passing through soon enough. Go ahead and take a look at the drop spot if you are heading off-island. At last a "catch and release" I can get on board with.
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