Pinay New Yorker

I had been carrying Mitch Albom's FOR ONE MORE DAY in my backpack since I arrived but I could not find a suitable place to release it in. I was thinking of doing it at the Starbucks over at the Opera area, but I didn't get the chance to return after 2 visits.

On Monday evening on my way back to the hotel on Champs Elysees from Chartres, I exited the Charles de Gaulle-Etoile Station and found a majestic Arc D'Triomphe standing -- what else -- triumphantly! (Pun intended..LOL)

So I started taking pictures and found a good spot to rest the camera on so I could use the timer function. In between shots, a young woman approached me and offered to take my picture. She even crouched down on her knee to get a good angle. When she turned to leave, I asked her if she was a tourist, too, and she told me she and her husband were from Peru. I asked her if she like to read and handed her the book. My release might yet make it to Peru. I hope she decided to release the book out into the wild again, although I wouldn't be surprised if she decides to keep the book instead. It is, after all, a keeper.

I wrote about bookcrossing.com not too long ago and I finally did my first book release last night -- THE MERMAID CHAIR.  (See journal entry here.)  I announced the drop off an hour before I left the office and came to a Starbucks full of tourists and those who were on their way home.  It was a convenient drop off because it was by the corner where I wait for the express bus to my part of Queens.

I cassually walked in through the back entrance and lay the book on the condiments section. I didn't linger.  I walked away and I've been monitoring if the book has been picked up.  I am no lining up the books I will be releasing into the wild in Paris this time.  I want to see which books are picked up by people who actually will take the time to tell us the book has been picked up.

It's really all very simple -- there is a unique Book Crossing ID number on the book which will allow you to access its original journal entry on the site.  You can then leave a comment for the person who released it so they know you have found it.  It's your choice to re-release the book into the wild or keep it.  We also have the option to get release alerts and there are a ton being released in New York -- it's just that they're in the most uncanny places and difficult for me to run after.  But one day soon, I hope to catch one.

A postcard trader who visited my original website once left a guestbook entry introducing me to Bookcrossing.com after she read about how I loved to read.  This was years ago and finally, here I am preparing to release my first book into the wild.

Touted as the World's Biggest Book Club, their welcome page states:

"You've come to a friendly place, and we welcome you to our book-lovers' community. Our members love books enough to let them go — into the wild — to be found by others. Sharing your used books has never been more exciting, more serendipitous, than with BookCrossing. Our goal, simply, is to make the whole world a library. BookCrossing is a free online book club of infinite proportion, the first and only of its kind. Inside, you'll find millions of book reviews and hundreds of thousands of passionate readers just like you.

Let's get right down to it. You know the feeling you get after reading a book that speaks to you, that touches your life, a feeling that you want to share it with someone else? BookCrossing.com gives you a simple way to share books with the world, and follow their paths forever!"

The mechanics are simple.  You register a book you are going to release, get a unique BCID (Book Crossing Identification) Number for the book, put a bookplate or label on the book with the number, with the simple instruction for the finder to go to bookcrossing.com and register the fact that the book has been "found", leave comments on the book or its "discovery", and then release the book back into the wild for others to find.

I was thinking of releasing my first book into the wild in Paris, but then, New York is my home, so here I am getting ready to release one of my For One More Day books (I had bought several) into the wild before the week is out.

Bookcrossing members can likewise "Go Hunting" by searching for recent book releases in particular venues.  Yes, there are books being released in Manila, believe it or not!  I'd love to snag a book released via bookcrossing.com myself.. one of these days. New York is one of the main avenues for bookcrossing.com and there are thousands of books out there, with a release happening at least every other day it seems.

Happy book hunting!