For Booklovers and Readers!

[Grim Jim]

I just thought I would share something cool with all of you that I have stumbled across a few years back. Now that I am out of school for the summer and waiting to land a summer intern job I am going to have a lot of free time.

One thing that I thought would be fun to get back into was Bookcrossing (http://www.bookcrossing.com).

It is a really neat website where thousands of booklovers agree to leave some of their favorite books in public places for others to find and take home for free. When you are done reading the free book then you rerelease them "into the wild" after posting them as found on the website.

It's a Karma thing... :kiss:

If you go to the website (http://www.bookcrossing.com/hunt), click on your country, and then click on the closest city to you, most likely you can find a list of free books in your area right now. Did I mention it is FREE? yes.....? Well it is :) and that is the best kind of entertainment for a penniless student.


It is really fun to do and one day I hope to release one of my own into the world and see how far it gets. So far I have only rereleased books I have found. When I go back to New Hampshire this summer I am going to rerelease "The Stainless Steel Rat" by Harry Harrison at O'Hare Airport in Chicago where I transfer planes.

I figure it has a pretty good chance of going international from there :D


members: 468,841
books registered: 3,050,395
good karma: priceless

[Project]

so basically you have to luck into these books? How do you find them? There is no description, no geocode, nada except a general area, like General Hospital.

I am signed up and logged in....

They don't even touch on this rather important point in the http://www.bookcrossing.com/faqs FAQ?

[Grim Jim]

so basically you have to luck into these books? How do you find them? There is no description, no geocode, nada except a general area, like General Hospital.

I am signed up and logged in....

They don't even touch on this rather important point in the http://www.bookcrossing.com/faqs FAQ?

Hey project, go to the hunt link I posted above and click Canada. From there you can pick your province and from there you can narrow it down to cities nearby you.

You can either just randomly check up on these cities from time to time to see what is available (the list refreshes every 20 minutes) or you can set an alert to go off for cities you select in your profile to watch. Then you will be emailed when new books become available in those cities.

You can also click on "set an alert for this city" once you have logged on and are on that city's page I believe.

I haven't set a city watch list yet (tho I will soon) so I can't give you any more specifics than that, but that is the gist of the alert system.

[Grim Jim]

I kind of see what you mean regarding the Montreal bookcrossing drops, they do seem kind of vague. Most of the time, at least here in Sacramento, they either drop the books at a coffee shop, a small park, or will be specific as to where the book was left in the description i.e. by the big green comfy couches (see the link below).

http://www.bookcrossing.com/hunt/1/5/2458/travel_-USA-California-Sacramento

I know there is one building here at California State University of Sacramento where the bookcrossers always drop their books in one location. I had to search around for it the first time but after that I always knew to look in a certain waiting area/lobby. It will probably be the same deal at the General Hospital near you I hope.

[Project]

I see, I got a bum link :) I will try it again, and set up an alert... I will maybe do a combo geocache/bookdrop, seen a couple done around here.