BookCrossing
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The found book!
If you love books and have a sense of fun check out BookCrossing. We’re a booklovers’ community of some 700,000 members in over 130 countries.
Basically we share books. Either by leaving them out there – in the wild (urban or natural) – or by sending them to a specific person (what we call ‘controlled release’). Not your most precious books of course! But ones you’ve loved and really want to share and hear what others think of it. Or a second copy, or one you probably won’t read again. Even ones you don’t like! Because others might.
Simply BookCross them! Join BookCrossing and follow the three ‘R’s: Read, Register and Release.
Register and Release
1) Enter a book’s details on the Register Book page.
2) Our system will give you a BCID number for each book you BookCross. Simply label the book, either as a handwritten note, one of our free downloadable labels* or one of the exclusive BookCrossing Book Plates from our Supply Store.
1-2 simple as that. You’re done! You’ve registered your first book. You can now ‘release’ it into the wild by leaving it somewhere for a stranger to find, or by doing a ‘controlled release’ and giving it to a specific person.
Finding books
One way to try and find BookCrossing books in the wild near you is to visit the Go Hunting pages. But part of the joy of BookCrossing is serendipity. BookCrossing books might be anywhere. It’s totally random. So keep your eyes open!
You can also sign up to receive release alerts for quicker notification of wild releases, make a wish list, join the book chat on the Bookring forums, or even see if someone wishes to trade a book with you. (Please keep in mind, though, that trading is an optional activity on BookCrossing and not all members wish to do so.) Lose yourself in a whole world of books!
One more thing before you head off to explore BookCrossing. Membership is free, but we do depend on the support of our members and provide lots of cool stuff you can buy in the Supply Store. Hint hint!
BookCrossing and The Lost Book
BookCrossing is a big part of The Lost Book. We’ve been releasing books in the wild for people to catch. We’ve also been organising ‘bookrays’ (look at the terminology section of the BookCrossing FAQs to find out what a bookray is). If you’d like to take part, join BookCrossing and get in touch with us over there at TheLostBook, where you’ll find a list of all the books we’re sharing. There’s also a list of wild releases that have been caught).
* You can download standard BookCrossing labels or you can use our specially-designed The Lost Book bookplates – they’re free. There are four bookplates per A4 page. Print them onto J8169 (99.1 x 139.0 mm) labels or use plain paper and glue.
The Lost Book is an animated web series where you wrote the plot.
