Travelin' Books

Last June I wrote a post about Ray Bradbury after he'd slipped this mortal coil.  It was about books and memories and the amazing influence this man had on me.   It started with the stranger who, out of the blue, handed me a book, and told me after I read it to pass it on.

This morning I was catching up with my usual morning blog reads and Lynn, over at pbackwriter, had a post about ten things to do with unwanted books.  One of the ten immediately caught my eye and I went to the site, BookCrossing, to check it out. 

Now, I'm pretty sure this is one of those deals where everyone but me already knows about this, but imagine my total surprise to discover it's the exact same concept of the pass-it-along book club that I joined that day in Maui with a book that changed the course of my life.

BookCrossing is more organized than a strange guy handing a strange girl a book on a tropical island.  There are bookplates that identify the book, and as it travels and is found then passed on again, people can go to the site and write about the book's journey to that point.  I so totally love this.  I love that people are doing it, that books are going around the world, from hand to hand, being read and shared.

No question, dear readers, that I wouldn't join.  So I did.  I'm going to make my own bookplates, then select a book and send it on its way.  The hard part for me is that I live in such a very small town.  How do I get my book out there?  My only advantage is that it's nearly Summer and my hamlet is at a crossroads where many travelers stop to get gas, to eat, then head for Crater Lake and all points east, south to California, west to the Pacific Ocean, or north to Seattle, Canada, Alaska.

Obviously, I won't be leaving any books in a gas station, but I could maybe leave one inside a restaurant where folks sit whilst waiting for a table.  Or maybe on a bench overlooking the river next to the Visitor's Center.  The best place, to my mind, would be an airport, but that's out as there isn't one, nor are there any train or bus stations within 75 miles.  Seriously people, the frigging middle of nowhere here.

Still.  That will be my challenge: to find a good place to release my book into the wild.  I can't wait to find out who will catch it...