Hey, Everyone! This is not so much a neat piece of “Internet” as a neat piece of the world. I absolutely LOVE that this exists. It’s called ‘Bookcrossing’ and it’s essentially turning the whole world into a library.
Picture this…
You’re sitting in a coffee shop, enjoying your favorite chai latte. You look over to the table next to yours and think, “Oh, how sad! Someone has forgotten their book.” You pick up said book, thinking to give it to the manager in case the owner comes back looking for it.
But then you notice a bizarre sticker on the book’s cover. It informs you “I’m not lost. I’m on a journey.”
Odd, right? So, curiosity peaked, you look inside and find a snazzy book plate informing you that this is a traveling book. You are free to take it home, read it, love it, and then set it free in another public place.
What fun! So, you do so. Once you’ve finished the book, you go onto the website, enter the ID listed on the book plate and… surprise! You find out that the very book you are now holding has been in twelve different states! Maybe three countries!
And what’s more, you get to look at the journal entries and see what the previous readers thought of the story and the characters. Oh sure, you could find reviews on other websites, but these reviewers were literally holding the SAME book that is on your desk, and isn’t that just magical?
Pretty neat, eh? And if you want to join the game, anyone is free to release their own books. You just go to the website and register the book, put the ID number inside, and then release it into the wild.
Here’s the website if you want to get involved. And I hope you do! And I hope you tell your friends! And most of all, I hope some day you find a wild book that you can take home with you, because it really is the coolest feeling ever.