No Read and Release For This Reader
By BILL DUNCAN
The View From Here
When the theory of catch-and-release fishing was first promoted, I couldn’t imagine, as poor of a fisherman as I am, releasing the fish I finally caught. Now comes another theory I have difficulty understanding. It is called read and release.
Since I hoard books as precious possessions, I find reading-and- releasing books about the same as the catch and release fish idea. Bill Bellando of Camas Valley, Ore. doesn’t seem to feel the same way. He is constantly giving me books and suggesting I pass them on to other readers.
Apparently to shame me in doing just that, he left a bookmark in the latest book he shared — a brochure promoting Bookcrossing, an international organization started by Ron Hornbaker of Kansas City, Missouri in 2001. The whole theory behind Hornbaker’s organization is to share books because he believes books can change people and people can change the world.
He calls his unique program a "read and release" book club, although there are no membership fees, or for that matter even meetings to attend. His organization has spread around the world in just a little under five years.
Today, bookcrossers are active in places as widespread as Antarctica, Argentina, Brazil, China, Iceland, India, Japan, Malaysia, South Africa and Singapore — far distances from where it all began in Kansas.
Hornbaker explains Bookcrossing this way:
"When you are finished with a book, instead of just putting it on a shelf where it will gather dust, set it free for a reader to find. It is the act of freeing books that really points to the heart of bookcrossing. Our goal, simply, is to make the whole world a book exchange of infinite proportion."
Hornbaker has developed a website where readers sharing books can register the book and get a Bookcrossing ID number so the reader can track the book’s journey. If the book is registered, the website provides a number that can be enclosed with the book so that future readers can contact the website and record a journal entry before they pass it on to another reader.
Readers can register at www.bookcrossing.com then get a BCID number, label the book and start it on its journey by releasing it. The book can be given to a friend, or left on a park bench, "forgotten" in a booth at a coffee shop, even donated to a charity so long as it is labeled with a BCID number. The giver will be notified by e-mail each time someone goes to the website and records journal entries about that particular registered book.
The giver is urged to make journal notes about the book on the website for other readers to become interested in reading it.
The website itself is intriguing as it has book reviews, book ratings, book recommendations and book discussions because each time a book changes hands, the members leave journal entries telling the world about their experiences.
On a smaller scale, the first time I encountered this type of book exchange was in Dr. John Wrigley’s medical office in Roseburg. Dr. Wrigley left hardbound books in his waiting room with an invitation for patients to borrow the book.
Personally, I prefer shopping for books in a used bookstore rather than a new bookstore. It is not necessarily the price difference, but the selection. The more disorganized the store is, the better I like it because every aisle, every shelf becomes an adventure.
For example, I found this quote stuck between the pages of a used book I bought from a St. Vincent de Paul store in Eugene:
"I do love secondhand books that open to the page some previous owner read oftenest." – Helen Hanff, author of "84 Charing Cross Road" — a book I would recommend to anyone who loves to read.
Sorry, Ron Hornbaker, I’ve read Hanff’s book, but I’m not willing to release my copy.
(Bill Duncan can be reached by writing to P.O. Box 812, Roseburg, OR 97470, or by e-mail at elderstatesmansblog@yahoo.com)