KateKintail's Book Journal

Becky was the daughter of a fellow BookCrosser who sadly passed away several years ago. She was a dear little friend to those of us who knew her; she always had a smile and a hug for everyone she met. We remember her on her birthday (Valentine's Day) by giving people we love hugs and by releasing books in her honor. Learn more at http://beckyshugs.com

So on this Valentine's Day, I met up with two BookCrossing friends and we did a mini release walk down to the waterfront to visit Becky's tree. Naturally, we left books at her tree in her memory and also left books in our wake along the way.
It was a cold and blustery day, so leaving this Winnie-the-Pooh & the Blustery Day book seemed appropriate.

While I left a soccer book outside of this sports bar, 6of8 boldly went in and offered a kids book to a little girl and her daddy.

We covered these benches with books! At the end of the day, we checked and there were only three left.

Becky's memorial tree (recently replaced). We left a bunch of books there.

Some of the books I left.

I lost my favorite scarf somewhere along the way, but it was well worth it to be able to honor one of my friends and, hopefully, spread some literary love to people who need a smile. When retracing my steps, trying to find my scarf, I found one of my books hanging on the edge of a trash can, so I rescued it and re-released it to give it another chance to find a reader.

I released 21 books and, as of right now, 2 have been caught (both of which I released at the tree)!

• The White Stallion


• Paint the Wind


• Black Beauty


• Sheltie in Double Trouble


• Just be Nice... and Not Too Rough!


• Winnie-the-Pooh's Friendship Book - CAUGHT!


• Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day


• When We Were Very Young


• Magic Treehouse: Viking Ships at Sunrise


• Magic Treehouse: Night of the Ninjas


• Magic Treehouse: Pirates Past Noon


• Magic Treehouse: Dinosaurs Before Dark


• Quidditch Through the Ages


• Soccer Halfback


• The Lost Valentine


• Things to Make and Do for Valentine's Day


• My Book of Funny Valentines


• Harvesting the Heart


• A Valentine for Ms. Vanilla


• The Phantom Tollbooth - CAUGHT!


• Hugs for Kids

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.

This past Sunday our small but enthusiastic group of BookCrossers who are also active Markeroons met up in Fairfax to snarf Old Town and other nearby markers. We had a fun time and managed to hit everything on our route except for the last 5 or 6 (which were on the optional list anyway). In addition to snarfing, we left BookCrossing books behind us on our travels, naturally!

Today at work we heard about the shooting in the Holocaust Museum in DC (scary) and discussion about that museum led my boss to say something like "My son had to visit a historic site for a school project and I was going to take him to the American History Museum on Sunday. But that was so far and in DC so do you know where we went?" She pointed to the right. "Did you know that right down--"

At which point I cut her off. "The City of Fairfax Museum! On SUNDAY did you say?"

"Yes!"

"Did you see my car there?" I proceeded to explain that my car was there all day because it was at that museum that my friends and I met up. We went in and looked around then walked around old town and then returned to the museum in order to carpool to the driving sites. Then we ended up there at the end of the day to pick up our cars. My boss and her son were there around 3-5 so we missed them, but not by much (by about an hour or so). I described our cars and she exclaimed that she'd seen them when she parked there.

"It used to be a school house, you know."

"I know," I told her. "I was there!" We laughed more.

I find it INCREDIBLY wacky that I've lived here 23+ years and never visited the museum until this past Sunday. And SHE'S lived here since the 1980's as well and never visited the museum until Sunday. We work 10 feet away from each other and just so happened to go on the very same day, missing each other by an hour or two at the most.

She also made it a point to take a photo of her son in front of the museum by the black & gold Old Town Fairfax marker sign. I showed her the photo we had taken of our group by that same sign (it's on the far right of the photo above).

And then she remembered something else and gasped. "When I was backing up to take the photo, I noticed something lying on one of the benches. I thought someone had forgotten something but then I looked closer and saw it was a book in a plastic bag with a sticky note on it reading 'Free! Take me home!' and I thought 'That's like what Kate does! I should pick it up and take it to her. It was a Tom Clancy book.'"

"Rainbow Six," I told her. Then I showed her the BookCrossing page for it... because it was a book *I* had released there. http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7255620 I showed her the release location for the book (I wish I'd uploaded the journal entry release pic already) and she laughed more.

She didn't pick the book up (which I knew already since it was there when the Markeroons picked up our cars at the end of the day), but we both got a big kick out of it. "I was going to pick it up and bring it to you to show you what I'd found since I know you do that thing leaving books around. And it was already YOUR book! What if I'd picked it up?!" More laughter. "I saw it and immediately thought of you." And I was the one who'd left it there.

Well, today I got a chance to go to Home Depot and release Bonfire of the Vanities. I picked the book up at the AXBC group meeting this summer and promised to theme release it at Home Depot. Mission accomplished!

Even took a camera phone picture of it sitting on the vanities :-)
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6295028

heehee!

I wild released a total of 13 books today.

I left four at the Sheraton in Tysons Corner (counting the one in the hotel shuttle) when I went to the LEGO convention. One was even a LEGO book! http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/5923865 It got snatched up less than 2 minutes after I put it down on a table by a drink station and walked away. The kid & parent looked confused and excited and took it with them. Yay!

I left a bunch here and there while driving to Art in the Pages statues. You can see pictures of them at my release gallery:
http://s338.photobucket.com/albums/n427/KateKintail/BookCrossing/ReleasePictures/?albumview=grid
I get a particular kick out of leaving two copies Call of the Wild at phones today.

And I released 4 books at Art in the Pages statues. It WOULD have been 6, but the one at Clemjtontri Park hasn't returned (even though the loaned one was moved back to Dolley Madison). So I'm going to have to do a THIRD trip up there! And I went to Woodrow Wilson Library but couldn't see a statue for the life of me. I felt really out of place (only white chica in the sea of Hispanics who were converging at the park next door for a game and looking at me weird). I tried to look around the building to see if the statue was hiding around the corner, but didn't want to look like I was going to do something weird to the building. And I didn't feel comfortable asking strangers if they'd seen a giant book decorated with circus elephants anywhere. I think I'll just call the library this week and see if maybe it's *inside* instead of outside. Which would muck up my plans significantly.
Anyway, the record for this project (11 releases so far) is here:
http://www.kintailscape.com/BC/artinthepages.html

I counted the 4 Art in the Pages releases for this week's Secret Sunday Mission (statue) and then went home. After making release notes, I remembered the new Confucius statue at GMU. So I headed over there with the one book in my car-- KICKING myself for not taking that Confucius wisdom book my coworker was giving away two weeks ago! I released a book at that statue (also in my release photo gallery) so that makes 5. Not bad!

Also, a few photos from the BookThing Trip are up now. You can see all my galleries here:
http://www.kintailscape.com/BC/gallery.html