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The Week of April 29, 2002
 in this issue...
i left my heart
In San Francisco. Now there's a song that won't leave your head. Who do you hear singing it: Frank Sinatra? Tony Bennett? Claramae Turner? Douglass Cross penned the brief lyrics:
The loveliness of Paris
seems somehow sadly gay,
The glory that was Rome
is just another day,
I've been terribly alone
and forgotten in Manhattan,
I'm going home to my city
by the bay.
Chorus:
I left my heart in San Francisco,
high on a hill it calls to me
To be where little cable cars
climb halfway to the stars.
The morning fog may chill the air,
I don't care.
My love waits there in San Francisco,
above the blue and windy sea,
When I come home to you, San Francisco,
your golden sun will shine for me.
 As you'll recall from the last BookCrossing News, I recently visited San Francisco for the first time. What a great city, full of character and flavor and complexity that only a lifetime there would reveal. My wife and I had only a few days, most of which were spent in business meetings (ugh), but we did manage to take a bay cruise under Golden Gate and around Alcatraz, ride a bus up to Haight-Ashbury and walk around, see Barry Bonds hit homer number 8 against the Brewers, and drop in a few bookstores to say Hi and introduce them to BookCrossing. That's Kaori in front of the literary landmark City Lights bookstore in North Beach. And yes, she's sporting a BookCrossing babydoll t-shirt from the BookCrossing Store.
the weekly award
Every newsletter a BookCrosser is awarded either a BookCrossing Coffee Mug or T-Shirt (winner's choice) from the BookCrossing Store (http://cafepress.com/bookcrossing/) to the member who did the most for the BookCrossing Movement since the previous newsletter. This week's BookCrosser of Distinction award goes to (drum roll please):
Norma Wallace from Columbus, Ohio
Norma's bookshelf: http://bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/normal
Norma, who works at the Kent State School of Library and Information Science, has been a member since way back in August of 2001. She's registered 152 books, and formally released 87 of them. But besides the great numbers, what matters most is that she's been very active promoting BookCrossing to her local chain of coffee shops. After several contacts with them, she's convinced them to set up formal "Crossing Zones" in each one, with display signage and literature, to help promote the movement. Way to go, Norma!
cbc radio, npr, utne reader
The Press is relentless! In the last newsletter I told you about the upcoming interview for CBC Radio in Canada; well, that went great, and it might be airing this Saturday morning all across the northland at 10 am. Watch the Current Show calendar on Arthur Black's website (http://basicblack.com) for details, which will be updated the Friday night before it airs at around 8pm.
As if not to be outdone by Canadian public radio, NPR contacted me a few days ago, and I'm leaving in about an hour for an interview with Neda Ulaby, the Cultural Desk Reporter from the DC office. It should air this Saturday on the Weekend Edition (http://www.npr.org/programs/wesat).
And finally, just yesterday a representative from Utne Reader (http://www.utne.com/), one of my favorite magazines, told me they're picking up the Book magazine article for reprint in the July/August edition of Utne. BookCrossing should be right up the alley of most Utne readers.
Next media goal? Television, of course. Since Oprah's Book Club called it quits, the Today show on NBC is reportedly going to fill the vacuum left in the world of publishing and promote books and authors to their 6 million viewers starting this June.
CALL TO ARMS! Help me suggest BookCrossing to NBC as a story idea by sending an email to [email protected], letting Katie and Matt know why you think BookCrossing would be a great thing to promote to their audience.
new website features
The BookCrossing site now has a discussion forum at http://bookcrossing.com/forum! It's fast, simple, and easy to use, so be sure to check in each day and join the banter in any of the eight topics: Introduce Yourself, Newbies, Release Techniques, Chit-Chat, Book Talk, Activists Only, Advanced Questions, and Feature Requests.
You'll also notice that the Leader Board (http://bookcrossing.com/leaderboard) is sporting new categories, including Recently Released Books and Recently Found Books. Take a look at those every day to keep up on all the new "finds," many of which are happening in the UK of late (way to go England!).
how you can help the movement
These tips will always be included at the bottom of our newsletter, since members spreading the word to friends is the best way you can help the BookCrossing Movement flourish. If you have a tip to add to this list, please reply and I'll include it next issue.
- Use the Tell-A-Friend feature at the website:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/tellafriend
to quickly tell one, or one hundred, friends about
BookCrossing by email.
- Forward this Newsletter to your friends, along with
a personal request that they join.
- Tell your local coffee shops and used bookstores about
BookCrossing. The best way is to print out the
Book magazine article (link on our site's Press page)
and leave it with them. Have them contact me for details on
becoming a featured Crossing Zone, since we'll be listing those
on the site in the near future.
- If you know anyone in the media biz (radio, TV,
newspaper, magazine, publishing, etc.), make sure to tell them
about BookCrossing and encourage them to feature on it. Stress
to them the nobility of our cause, the grass-roots growth
efforts, the lack of big-wig corporate sponsors.
- Speaking of corporate sponsors, the one we've got our eye
on is Starbucks. I know many of you may have mixed feelings
about that big corporate chain, but they're everywhere.
And there would be no quicker way to grow BookCrossing than
to have a formal Crossing Zone with display set up in every
Starbucks worldwide. If anyone knows anybody towards the
top of that corporate food chain, please contact me directly.
- If you've got a website, make sure to grab one of our
eye-catching logos and link code from the My Bookshelf page:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf
and put it on your site.
- When you talk to your friends who love books, be sure to
talk to them about BookCrossing. There is no influence more powerful
than personal word-of-mouth.
- Finally, the most obvious way to spread the word: release
your books into the wild, or share them with friends! Each one
is a little mobile billboard for BookCrossing, and will help
convince others to share in kind.
Thanks for reading this far, and until next time, Happy 'Crossing!
Ron
Ron Hornbaker
Co-Founder, BookCrossing.com
[email protected]
This newsletter is sent only to members of BookCrossing.com who have their member preference set accordingly. If you would prefer to not receive this newsletter in the future, you can change your newsletter preference anytime by logging in with your email address (%email%) and password at your BookCrossing Profile Page.
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Total: 4,095
Last Week: 272
Total: 13,978
Last Week: 1,182
Books Registered
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Last Week: %bkw%
Books Released
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Last Week: %rlw%
Friend Referrals
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