“A book is not only a friend, it makes friends for you. When you have possessed a book with mind and spirit, you are enriched. But when you pass it on you are enriched threefold.” (Henry Miller)
Gloucester is now a place for booklovers to participate in the worldwide phenomenon of BookCrossing, where free books can be exchanged by visitors to Gloucester from all over Australia and the world. Excess books from the Gloucester Library are being tagged with a unique code plus the Gloucester platypus branding so that each book also becomes a travelling marketing tool for our region, with the assistance of travellers from all over the country and the world.
BookCrossing is an online community of booklovers in over 130 countries who share their books in an exciting serendipitous way, just like tagging and releasing an exotic bird or marine animal. Each book is tagged with a unique number that can be tracked online at www.bookcrossing.com and being attached to Gloucester Library makes us an ideal location to be an official BookCrossing Zone.
“BookCrossing is an online community of booklovers in over 130 countries who share their books in an exciting serendipitous way, just like tagging and releasing an exotic bird or marine animal,” said Gloucester Tourism Manager Wendy Hughes. “Each book is tagged with a unique number that can be tracked online at www.bookcrossing.com and being attached to Gloucester Library makes us an ideal location to be an official BookCrossing Zone.”
How does it work?
Visitors to the Gloucester Visitor Information Centre can select any number of books from the BookCrossing Zone display and take them away for their reading pleasure. Afterwards, there’s no need to return them, simply leave the books anywhere for others to discover them and so the journey of the travelling book continues. People leave the books at accommodation providers, cafes, waiting rooms, even park benches and farmers markets. It’s up to the reader to decide where they want to release the book “into the wild”.
Have you just found a BookCrossing book?
You can see the book’s journey online at http://www.bookcrossing.com by entering the unique BookCrossing ID (BCID) number found in the book, and leave a brief note so that others will know what’s happened to the book. An email message will be sent to previous readers who have entered online comments on the book to tell them that the book is safe and happy with you. Once that’s done, you can decide if you want to keep the book, read it, pass it on or set it free again, or any combination of the above!
Go hunting for books, old and new
To find other BookCrossing books in the wild near you, see the hunt pages on the website www.bookcrossing.com.
And of course if you’re looking to buy the latest book or novel just published, we recommend visiting the Gloucester Bookshop in Church Street for all your new book needs.
