For once, Girlawhirl had a moment to sit down at her favorite coffee shop instead of her usual grab and go maneuver. She was truly enjoying sitting there sipping her drink, just melting into the big comfy chair when something caught her eye—a book sitting precariously on the edge of the coffee table facing her, as if asking her to pick it up. She thought maybe the owner had left their name inside, or she could turn it in at the counter… surely the owner would come back for it. But as she examined the book she realized it was not forgotten at all. It had been left there intentionally, so that someone just like herself would find it…
On the inside of the book, instead of a name or phone number, Girlawhirl found a tag with a BookCrossing ID (BCID) number on it. Intrigued by what this was all about, she flipped open her laptop and went straight to the web site. At BookCrossing.com, Girlawhirl entered the BCID and found a whole page of notes from people who had ‘caught' and ‘released' the book at one time or another.
Her eyes lit up reading emails and anecdotes from people who had enjoyed the very book she now held in her hands. There was an air of romance about the whole thing—the adventure of one book: from a bench looking out on the River Thames to a beach, with a cocktail in the reader's other hand.
Girlawhirl couldn't wait to sign up. She took this book home with her and thought about where she could leave it. On an airplane en route to some exotic place? Or in her favorite Parisian café? The possibilities were endless.
BookCrossing calls it the 3R's—Read, Register, Release. Girlawhirl calls it genius!
Go Do It!