Meet Mundoo....
My friend is a BC Addict and we know where to find her!
by flitterbyNovember 20, 2004
My best friend, "Mundoo" is totally addicted to BookCrossing. She tops the Australian BookCrossing charts with (to date) 1,814 books registered and 1,552 released. Yet she lives on a small island in South Australia and runs a business in a very small country
town. She's always surprising me with books and other pleasures so I thought I'd write this article as a way to turn the tables and surprise her with some recognition for her efforts. Mundoo is the type of person that can find extraordinary means to deliver
a gift. She once gave me a coffee mug as a gift, but had it delivered to me (with coffee) while we were at a cafe. Long before we arrived, she had arranged with the manager to use the mugs she left him in order to make the gift a real surprise. Boy was it!
She releases books with the same flair and attention to detail.
Mundoo's BookCrossing journey began when she read an article in the Weekend Australian and thought it sounded intriguing. She came to the website on August 30th 2003 and was
immediately hooked.
Mundoo got caught up in the 1 million book challenge and figured if she can register 50 books, she should try to go for more. Being in the right place at the right time has helped too. She came across books for the church op shop and registered them discreetly with a small stamp and label. The local library was moving to a new location and had boxes of books (mostly Mills and Boone) that she offered to 'get out of their life' for a $20.00 donation to the Friends of the Library. This gave her over 300 books to register and release. By the time she passed the 800th book registered, she decided she could probably try to make it to the bottom of of the Australian stats list, and from there quietly climbed to the top of the list, where she has been for a number of months now.
Mundoo 'litters' books everywhere. I've been able to track what towns she's been to on weekends just by watching the South Australian 'Go Hunting' page as the towns light up with her entries. She even told me once that if she ever goes missing, I can track her last known whereabouts by checking the BookCrossing Hunting pages!
Phone boxes are one of Mundoo's favourite release places. Her most memorable wild release catches was when she left a book in a phone box in a tiny country town. All there was in this town was the phone box and a closed-down shop. The book was found and journaled by someone who's car had broken down. They joined BookCrossing and later released the book into the wild again. Another of her unusual experiences has been a book she left in a laundromat. The book was picked up by Dutch tourists cycling their way through Australia. They journaled it and took it back to Holland where it was journaled by an Anonymous Finder.
One of the books Mundoo registered (Katherine's Diary, http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1507579) caused her meet the author for dinner! The book was one she'd picked up from her Friends of the Library find, and after she registered it on BookCrossing, the author found her journal entry. This started a correspondence and when the author came to Adelaide on a fact finding mission they met up in North Adelaide (100km from her home) for dinner and a chat. On her way home, naturally Mundoo had several books that she released in various places. One of these were picked up by a BookCrosser who'd never had a catch before. “In all a perfectly satisfying BookCrossing experience,” she said.
Books tend to find Mundoo these days. Most people who know her and know of her passion for BookCrossing will save books for her, and then there are those amazing finds like when she went for her weekly newspaper and found a box of of about 200 books for free loan to the public. She's slowly registered them by picking up a bundle of about 5 at a time, registering them on BC and then returning them. She says “I have been to this outlet for years on a weekly basis and never seen those books. There they were! They have been there forever. I never really looked before.”
When a fellow BookCrosser made comment they'd joined BC to unclutter their house, Mundoo told her in a whisper: “Oh, it won't do that for you, BCing will actually create more books and clutter in your life. Since joining BookCrossing I have had more books appear in my life than I ever thought possible. I have read different genres of books than I have ever considered. I now have a Mount TBR (To Be Read) pile of books beside my bed on a shelf I had to build to keep them from falling over. I have sheets of paper for labels in folders. I use the kitchen table to do BC work. We have lost half the kitchen table as an eating area. I have corresponded with people all over the world due to my interest in BCing. I look and stop at towns/places I visit with new eyes as I look for potential release spots, I see more of those towns than I did before. I have met people in towns that I happen to be going through that I found on BC. I have enriched my life beyond measure. But I have NOT uncluttered my house,” she said with a grin.
Naturally family have learned to adjust to Mundoo's addiction. Her partner is quite used to her saying "oh that phone box up ahead on the side of the road, could we stop for a moment so I can drop off a book please"? Every once in awhile he will even suggest a good looking spot for her to consider releasing to. When she's had a particularly good catch, she'll tell him, "you remember that book I left at the shelter shed in that little country town on our way to... well it got picked up and the person lives no where near there and is going to ...." She lugs a huge bag of books to release whenever they go away and promises it will be empty by time they return home.
Mundoo adopted me as her 'bestest friend' even before I arrived in Australia about ten years ago. We met because she found an article I'd written about my (then) future husband in a magazine. As he was a customer of hers she rushed to tell him about the article. She's bragged about me to friends telling them that I'm an 'American author'. She's also done some very wonderful sneaky things like Random Acts of BookCrossing Kindness (RABCK) to myself and others (spreading the BC addiction, for sure). BookCrossing seems to suit her personality very well! I wanted to take this opportunity to turn to tables and tell the world about my mad BookCrossing addicted friend, and hopefully completely surprise her at the same time.
Family and friends know exactly where Mundoo is. She's wandering the streets either looking for great release spots or bargains on more books to register and release!
Mundoo's BookCrossing journey began when she read an article in the Weekend Australian and thought it sounded intriguing. She came to the website on August 30th 2003 and was
immediately hooked.Mundoo got caught up in the 1 million book challenge and figured if she can register 50 books, she should try to go for more. Being in the right place at the right time has helped too. She came across books for the church op shop and registered them discreetly with a small stamp and label. The local library was moving to a new location and had boxes of books (mostly Mills and Boone) that she offered to 'get out of their life' for a $20.00 donation to the Friends of the Library. This gave her over 300 books to register and release. By the time she passed the 800th book registered, she decided she could probably try to make it to the bottom of of the Australian stats list, and from there quietly climbed to the top of the list, where she has been for a number of months now.
Mundoo 'litters' books everywhere. I've been able to track what towns she's been to on weekends just by watching the South Australian 'Go Hunting' page as the towns light up with her entries. She even told me once that if she ever goes missing, I can track her last known whereabouts by checking the BookCrossing Hunting pages!
Phone boxes are one of Mundoo's favourite release places. Her most memorable wild release catches was when she left a book in a phone box in a tiny country town. All there was in this town was the phone box and a closed-down shop. The book was found and journaled by someone who's car had broken down. They joined BookCrossing and later released the book into the wild again. Another of her unusual experiences has been a book she left in a laundromat. The book was picked up by Dutch tourists cycling their way through Australia. They journaled it and took it back to Holland where it was journaled by an Anonymous Finder.
One of the books Mundoo registered (Katherine's Diary, http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1507579) caused her meet the author for dinner! The book was one she'd picked up from her Friends of the Library find, and after she registered it on BookCrossing, the author found her journal entry. This started a correspondence and when the author came to Adelaide on a fact finding mission they met up in North Adelaide (100km from her home) for dinner and a chat. On her way home, naturally Mundoo had several books that she released in various places. One of these were picked up by a BookCrosser who'd never had a catch before. “In all a perfectly satisfying BookCrossing experience,” she said.
Books tend to find Mundoo these days. Most people who know her and know of her passion for BookCrossing will save books for her, and then there are those amazing finds like when she went for her weekly newspaper and found a box of of about 200 books for free loan to the public. She's slowly registered them by picking up a bundle of about 5 at a time, registering them on BC and then returning them. She says “I have been to this outlet for years on a weekly basis and never seen those books. There they were! They have been there forever. I never really looked before.”
When a fellow BookCrosser made comment they'd joined BC to unclutter their house, Mundoo told her in a whisper: “Oh, it won't do that for you, BCing will actually create more books and clutter in your life. Since joining BookCrossing I have had more books appear in my life than I ever thought possible. I have read different genres of books than I have ever considered. I now have a Mount TBR (To Be Read) pile of books beside my bed on a shelf I had to build to keep them from falling over. I have sheets of paper for labels in folders. I use the kitchen table to do BC work. We have lost half the kitchen table as an eating area. I have corresponded with people all over the world due to my interest in BCing. I look and stop at towns/places I visit with new eyes as I look for potential release spots, I see more of those towns than I did before. I have met people in towns that I happen to be going through that I found on BC. I have enriched my life beyond measure. But I have NOT uncluttered my house,” she said with a grin.
Naturally family have learned to adjust to Mundoo's addiction. Her partner is quite used to her saying "oh that phone box up ahead on the side of the road, could we stop for a moment so I can drop off a book please"? Every once in awhile he will even suggest a good looking spot for her to consider releasing to. When she's had a particularly good catch, she'll tell him, "you remember that book I left at the shelter shed in that little country town on our way to... well it got picked up and the person lives no where near there and is going to ...." She lugs a huge bag of books to release whenever they go away and promises it will be empty by time they return home.
Mundoo adopted me as her 'bestest friend' even before I arrived in Australia about ten years ago. We met because she found an article I'd written about my (then) future husband in a magazine. As he was a customer of hers she rushed to tell him about the article. She's bragged about me to friends telling them that I'm an 'American author'. She's also done some very wonderful sneaky things like Random Acts of BookCrossing Kindness (RABCK) to myself and others (spreading the BC addiction, for sure). BookCrossing seems to suit her personality very well! I wanted to take this opportunity to turn to tables and tell the world about my mad BookCrossing addicted friend, and hopefully completely surprise her at the same time.
Family and friends know exactly where Mundoo is. She's wandering the streets either looking for great release spots or bargains on more books to register and release!
