KateKintail's Book Journal

I used to theme so many of my BookCrossing releases. But I haven't been wild releasing too much lately in general.

I was checking out the used book shelf at the library on Pi Day (3/14/15) and saw Life of Pi. So I quickly sped home and registered the book. Then I went out and found an excuse to go to the grocery store.

Once upon a time, I was nervous about reverse shoplifting with BookCrossing books (leaving books in a store instead of buying them). But no longer! So I boldy walked straight over to the pie section, left the book, and took some photos.


http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/13228951

I was so pleased with the release. And yesterday it was journaled by someone who totally understood my themed release! And that's why I love themed releases. When the person who finds it totally gets it, they journal it.

"I found the book sitting on the pies in the Giant because I was looking for some pie to eat since it was Pi day. I thought it was pretty clever to leave the Life of Pi on some pies on Pi day. I read the book back in high school and I liked it. It is a good book for all audiences and it has a fantastic story. Hope the next person to find it enjoys it."

I bought six bags of books at my library's used book sale last weekend and started going through them tonight. I pulled out the second one to register it to take to the Gaithersburg Book Festival next weekend and, as I went to slap the BookCrossing sticker in the front cover, I found there was already a BookCrossing label there!

I thought, perhaps, it was from someone in my local group, but I didn't recognize their handwriting. Upon journaling it, I discovered that it had been registered in Utah a little over 5 years ago. An anonymous finder found it a few months later in a waiting room and presumably gave it to her sister in North Dakota, then it went travelling. For five years. And it finally wound up in my hands!

I love finding BookCrossing books in the wild, unexpectedly. It's such a pleasure when it's a book that I've not only read but loved!

See the book's journey so far & its journalers here: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7102607

Where will it go next? I might release it at the book festival... or I might save it to release in honor of Becky, resqgeek's daughter, who passed away (we release books every Valentine's Day in her honor). This book would be an appropriate release as she played soccer.Or, more likely, I might save it for a YA bookbox I'll be starting soon.

It's always fun when books from a while back check back in with you. It gives me some hope that some books I've released and never heard of may be journaled years later when I've forgotten all about them.

For example, I released a copy of A Tale of Two Cities in 2008 at the Fall for the Book Festival and it just checked in with me this month in 2013: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6563373/

I just heard in from a controlled release from 2007. The book is a copy of Sphere, which I mailed to one of the winners of my 5th Anniversary contest on the BookCrossing forum (I was at 1000 books registered and 500 books released). The book went to Hampshire in the United Kingdom, where it bounced around a little among controlled releases and wild release. It got picked up by someone in the UK and passed on to people in Spain, where it wasn't journaled. But then, a year later, it is found in Spain in a charity shop. It was read and then re-donated. So who knows where it will next end up? http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5301514

I love watching my books do more traveling than I do! :-)

Confession: I'm a bad BookCrosser
Reality: Not really; I just feel guilty

I love wild releasing books. I love seeing them get picked up. I love journal entries when books get caught--I just got one on a book from 2008 I didn't even make release notes on. But ever since the year of the 2011 BookCrossing Convention in Washington, D.C., I haven't wild released much. My entire life is defined by "the convention" with "before" and "after" and my release habits in the "after" time are pathetic. Of course, there's nothing that says that a BookCrosser has to wild release. Plenty of BookCrossers just exchange books or do controlled releases. Still, I feel guilty about not wild releasing. I've even started buying books at my library every time I go volunteering (4 for $1) to give myself a little release fodder each week and STILL I haven't wild released.

Today, however, I braved the cold and the rain to wild release some books in memory of ResQgeek's daughter, Becky. Her birthday is Feb 14 but I wanted to release them on the evening of the 13th so people would find them on the 14th and have a happy Valentine's Day because of them. I even got up early to go to work so I could leave work early and get to Alexandria (I hoped) before it got dark. It was a good plan.

However, it was raining and cold by the time I left work. I got worried that the BookCrossing bags I'd used were too thin and the books would get ruined, so I took them all out of their bags, put them in ziplocks, and put the books back in again; that cost me time and it was dark by the time I got to Alexandria. And--silly person that I am--I didn't cut the pink ribbon into pieces ahead of time and afix them to the bags (I wanted to adjust the lengths based on the branches). So there I am in the rain and the dark without a flashlight, straining to see the pink ribbon as I cut it into pieces and use packing tape to tape it to bags using fingers numb from the cold. Some of the pieces of tape got too wet to stick and I dropped two pieces on the ground and had to feel around in the wet grass until I found them so I wouldn't litter. My hand HURT and tingled when I got back in the car afterward and tried to warm up and dry off, but it's okay now.



The effort was totally worth it, though. I released 12 books (Becky would have been turning 12 this year) on the tree, all in BookCrossing bags, hanging with pink ribbon, and with pink heart post-it notes urging people to take them home and enjoy them. One of these years when I do this, I'll have to take off the afternoon from work and go there during the day for a proper photo. But I'll settle for being able to use my hands afterward. LOL

1. Thinking of You


2. The Case of the Cat's Meow


3. Horse Crazy


4. Valentine Thoughts


5. Heart of the Sea


6. Hugs for Women


7. The Te of Piglet


8. How About a Hug?


9. Winnie-the-Pooh: Just Be Nice and Get Ready for Bed


10. Pooh Loves You


11. Top Wing


12. Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree

I've got a couple books set aside to release tomorrow. And I'm hoping these releases will throw me back into the habit of wild releasing. It used to be that I couldn't leave the house without a book to wild release. And I have made a few efforts in 2011 and 2012, but this time I hope it takes and I start wild releasing like I used to.

I'm going to try to be better about using this blog for more than just book reviews. So...

A copy of Lord of the Flies, I released for the You're Such an Animal 2011 Challenge last year was picked up at the National Zoo (in Washington, D.C.) by a couple. There's a release photo (left it near the invertibrate house).

It was read by both of them (both joined BookCrossing as well) and then released yesterday in Hong Kong!


Map made at: http://www.travellerspoint.com/

I released two of the books from the Book Thing at IKEA yesterday(thank goodness I got a few journaled at Panera!) when crrcookie dropped kristamd off there (then we went shopping, of course). Kristamd suggested the spot on the piece of furniture inside the front entryway and so I left a book there. It was picked up by someone enthusiastic (who joined)!

Death of a Ghost
http://bookcrossing.com/journal/6462803