“Nothing links man to man like the frequent passage from hand to hand of a good book.” ~ Walter Sickers

People are fond of passing objects from one person to another. Perhaps you’ve heard of…

• Flat Stanley ~ A paper doll that travels with a journal from school to school where other students treat him as a guest and journal about his experiences there. This has led to others in the paper arts world creating paper doll versions of themselves to travel from one place to another.

• Travel Bug ~ A travel bug is a trackable item that moves from place to place. People hide them in Geo-caches, and log their travels online. Sometimes the travel bugs will have a specific location they want to get to. Sometimes the owner will request that they be photographed at local landmarks.

• Artist Trading Cards ~ Art cards traded by others. Some end up in personal collections. Other’s end up traveling from person to person.

• Art Journal Round Robins ~ Artistic journals are passed from artist to artist. Each artist completes part of the journal and passes it on to the next participant. Eventually it ends back in the hands of the owner.

And then there is book crossing.  What’s a book crossing you wonder?

According to the Concise Oxford English Dictionary it is ” the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise.”

BookCrossing.com is a website dedicated to the practice of BookCrossing.   Here’s their instructions on how to participate:

“The “3 Rs” of BookCrossing…

1. Read a good book (you already know how to do that)
2. Register it here (along with your journal comments), get a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number), and label the book
3. Release it for someone else to read (give it to a friend, leave it on a park bench, donate it to charity, “forget” it in a coffee shop, etc.), and get notified by email each time someone comes here and records a journal entry for that book. And if you make Release Notes on the book, others can Go Hunting for it and try to find it!”

Sounds like a fun way to pass on the books you no longer need.  So I’ve set-up myself up as a user at BookCrossing.com. I’m going to select my book, and then send it on it’s way. I’m hoping to keep track of the book here on my blog as well as at BookCrossing.  I’ll let you know what book I decide to send on it’s way.

With a Book Crossing it’s ultimately true as Walter Sickers said “Nothing links man to man like the frequent passage from hand to hand of a good book.”

How about you?  Have you participated in a book crossing before?
Would you be interested in participating?
What do you do with your used books?