BookCrossing

BookCrossing or BC, is a website, whose idea is to release books "into the wild" and to be found afterwards by a stranger. It is like an "adventure for books" and their new readers. If someone decides to release a book via BookCrossing, it has to get a BCID - a BookCrossing id number first so it can be tracked.

History

Ron Hornbaker got the idea in March, 2001. The website was launched around 4 weeks later, on April 17 2001. It developed till now (Dec 2003) into yet-small movement with around 192'000 members worldwide and 713'000 books registered.

Process

After registering the books on the internet and attaching a print-out bookplate with the registration number and some informations about B.C., the releaser may follow his books on their trip and see what others think about them, if the finder reports his catch on the BC internet site (see below).

Furthering the BookCrossing idea

More sophisticated forms of BC are bookrays and bookrings: a group of people "subscribes" to a book on the internet and the book is mailed from one participant on the list to the next, often across continents.

Bookboxes function similarly; each participant, except the original sender, should however replace a specified number of books with volumes of his own of the same genre.

External links

• BookCrossing Page
• BookCrossing Info PDF (2003-Q3) (336 k)