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Recent Book Activity

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Move to Germany

At the beginning of September, I moved from England to Germany, where I'll be living for about a year. It has taken me six weeks to get the internet working, but now I have, I'm back on Bookcrossing and I hope I can start releasing again. I'm not taking on another release project like the one I had last time I was in Germany, though! (See below.)

Message in a Bottle

On the way over to Germany, I released Passage by Connie Willis in a bottle in the North Sea. Two weeks later it turned up, also in Germany, as my one hundred and fiftieth catch!

Release project in memoriam Diana Wynne Jones, 1934-2011

My favourite author died earlier this year. I first heard of BookCrossing on a mailing list of her fans. In her memory, I am going to try and release as many of her books as I can. So far:
Dark Lord of Derkholm
Crown of Dalemark
Dogsbody
Eight Days of Luke
Wild Robert
Conrad's Fate
Coming soon: Power of Three (needs some repairs before I register and release it)

Reading Statistics

I'm not going to make you scroll through pages and pages of book lists! Just a brief summary of my reading:

2011: I read 110 books, of which:
53 I'd not read before, 57 were re-reads;
99 were fiction, 11 non-fiction;
103 were in English, 7 in German.
(And I have the same two German books as last year that I'm half way through!)

2010: I read 127 books, of which:
63 I'd not read before, 64 were re-reads;
108 were fiction, 19 non-fiction;
125 were in English, 2 in German.

2009: I read 119 books, of which:
60 I'd not read before, 59 were re-reads;
97 were fiction, 22 non-fiction;
117 were in English, 2 in German.

2008: I read 123 books, of which:
61 I'd not read before, 62 were re-reads;
105 were fiction, 18 non-fiction;
118 were in English, 5 in German.

The Books listed on my shelf

I intend eventually to list my entire collection here. You will see many books marked as Permanent Collection, but most of these are available for loan. A word of warning, though. Many of my books are quite heavy hardbacks, and if I lend them outside the UK I may ask for something in trade, even if it's only the loan of another book in return.

Any book marked "Available" can be traded, or if you ask nicely enough, given away. Most of these are meant to be released, though.

Me

I'm not sure what to say about me. I'm a Christian (Church of England) and a Musician (Piano, Bassoon), not necessarily in that order. During the week, I work as an electrical engineer; at weekends, a church organist, although after 12 years playing twice a Sunday I don't want a regular slot again! As hobbies I write music and collect old computers. I still find time to read a lot of books, mainly by dint of having no television set.

I read mostly Science Fiction and Fantasy, but also some historical novels. My favourite authors are Diana Wynne Jones, Georgette Heyer and, more recently, Lois McMaster Bujold. I've also recently discovered Cornelia Funke, and am trying to read her books in the original German.

Apart from fiction, I collect technical books related to electrical engineering (or music or computers). I will often buy and read a textbook on an obscure subject simply because it looks interesting. Finally, in relation to my organist's job, I collect hymn books - full music editions if possible.

As of Autumn 2010 I am studying part-time with the Open Theological College, and some of the books I read on this course may find their way out here.

One Hundred and Fifty-Eight Wild Catches!

Books are expensive in Germany, even at flea markets, but I got a few from the Uncon in Berlin, which should be finding their way into the wild over the coming onths. With luck, this is now a scrollable list with links to the books. My thanks to Ardik, on whose profile I found the code to do this.

Sommerfrische (my first uncon book, before I got home to make notes)
The USA (Horrible Histories Special)
Travel Beyond the Ordinary
Fighter Boys
Best Murder Stories (Released in Nottingham, found 4 years later in Belper)
Beast (Again before I made release notes)
Das geheimnisvolle Verschwinden des Moghul (found by another person learning German)
Wild Robert
Passage (my "message" in a bottle, released in the sea)
Dip in Road
The Potter's Field
Starstormers (another with two wild catches!)
Vicinity Cluster
The Name of this Book is Secret
Sunburst
Mister Monday
Ender's Game, yet another before I made release notes
Test Your Cat
The Street Lawyer
Werewolf versus Dragon
The Shivering Sands
Cliff's Notes on Men
The Exile Waiting
The Hobbit
Spotted Pigs and Green Tomatoes
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The Colours of her Days
Accomodating Brocolli in the Cemetary
A World Out of Time
On, Off (This is my only genuine TRIPLE jump. Some interesting gaps in the record, too!)
Yes Prime Minister - five years release to catch!
The Story of Wimpy, a Wump
The Dragon Lord
River of Dancing Gods (over six years from release to catch!)
Water Power
The Illustrated Mum
Focus on Love
How Green are your Wellies
Lives of the Monster Dogs
A Book of Fairies
Bill's New Frock
Corduroy
Why can't a Man be more like a Cat?
Sorcerer's Daughter
This Life I've Led
Darwin's Radio
The Water Babies
Eines Tages geht der Rabbi (What's it been doing since Gelsenkirchen?)
The Winter Sleepwalker
Starman Jones
The Starcrossed
100 Essential Scientists
Cryptonomicon
White Teeth
The Bad Beginning (No release notes again)
Mysterious Christmas Tales
Dictionary of Doodles
Mop and Smiff Down on the Farm
The Story of the Proms (Released during the 2006 season, journalled during the 2007 season.)
The Hand of Mary Constable
The Sea Shall Not Have Them
Robot Romance
Great Short Stories
Lady of Hay (Found by someone who appreciated the themed release, even without notes!)
Salt in my Porridge
Over the Hills and Far Away (This book and I Bought a Mountain were released on the same walk)
I Bought a Mountain
Mindswap
The Descent of Anansi
The last Vampire (It seems I forgot to make release notes. It's travelled, but I've no idea how far...)
Something More (Seems to have done a silent catch, release and journalled catch in just three days!)
The Silent Miaow
The Philadelphia Experiment
Savage Sisters and Hang Spur McCoy (Caught and journalled the same evening!)
Green Darkness
Here Be Dragons (I rather liked this review)
The Perils of Pushing Forty (Before I made release notes)
Master of Whitestorm
Day of the Jackal Before I made release notes, again!
Maggie's Market
The Book of the Banshee
An Angel for Molly
Hunting the Ghost Dancer (And a second wild catch a year later!)
Fool's Errand (Yet another before I made release notes.)
Dagger of the Mind
Summertime
The Hounds of Skaith (Another book caught twice! If finding it in a friend's pocket counts...)
Vampires (Before I had time to make notes, again.)
The Cruel Sea
Wombat in the Wild (Another challenge book has got two new readers!)
The Swoose
Little Bear (Yes, it's another challenge book!)
Mr Toad of Toad Hall (Fifth catch for the challenge, also without notes)
The Python Project (Fourth catch for the challenge, and no release notes)
Little Book of Frogs (A third catch for the challenge)
British Butterflies (Another catch for the You're Such an Animal challenge)
Duckling Diary (My first catch on the Animal release challenge, before I made release notes)
Godbond
Claudine Married (Looks like it moved around a bit before it got journalled)
Out of the Dust
Gifts of Unknown Things (The most enthusiastic new BookCrosser I've hooked, I think)
The Dream Master (Took over a year and a half, but good journal entry!)
The Pawns of Null-A
September (Good to know that public transport releases still get journalled!)
Orphan of Angel Street (Another catch from a new member in Cornwall!)
The Black Tide (Left on a seat on a tube station platform)
The Dragon and the George (Was it really kicking around the students' union for three years?)
Live and Let Die (Caught while I was still making release notes for the previous week's books)
Wizard in Wonderland (Caught before I got home to make release notes)
Rebecca (Another book with a second wild catch!)
The Visitor (dubious releasing a teenage book at a university. But at least it was logged!)
A Village Affair
Whiteoak Heritage
Last Man at Arlington (Very encouraging catch from two kids, before my release notes again!)
Master of the Five Magics (Another book with two wild catches! Looks set to die this time, though)
The Big Losers
Rennschwein Rudi Rüssel (One of the first books I released in Germany, caught after I got home)
The Remittance Kid (Probably my least gratifying journal entry ever)
Farewell, My Lovely (Three days! Wonderful! I've seen a book sit here for nearly three weeks!)
The Message
Der Feenring (My third German catch. Is three times a charm?)
Wolfsblut (German translation of White Fang) (another that beat my release notes)
War Crimes for the Home (Released (and caught) in Scotland, now going to America!)
Das Geheimnis des Pater Brown (my first wild catch in Germany)
Children of the Lens (The first catch at one of my favourite release spots)
The Stainless Steel Rat Joins the Circus
Venus (At last another book to be caught twice!)
Giles Cartoons 18th Series
The Sounds Between (Yet another for which I didn't have time to make release notes)
Deck the Halls
Richer than All His Tribe (This one, too, has had its second genuine wild catch!)
The King Beyond the Gate
Waylander (The third book of mine found by arturogrande)
Dragonsbane (Catches are coming in thick and fast!)
Beauvallet (I think I know the person who caught this!)
Damiano (another who was too quick for me)
Making Toys from Wood
Zoovet (Books do get passed on by non-crossers!)
Beethoven's Third Symphony (I'm rather pleased with this!)
The Man who Fell to Earth (This one has brightened someone's day...)
The Great Escape
101 Things to Do during a Dull Sermon
The Englishman who went up a hill (... and this one has brightened someone's week!)
Teach Yourself Conjuring
Nebula Award Stories 3 (No release notes, because I made the notes for the wrong book!)
An Introduction to Paper, its manufacture and use
Thunder on the Right
Intervention (It's nice to have a local BookCrosser who goes hunting!)
Flashman and the Redskins
Where You Belong (Probably the most gratifying catch I've had.)
The business of management : art or craft?
Politically Correct Bedtime Stories
The shape of futures past : the story of prediction
The World in Winter
A Transatlantic Tunnel, Hurrah!
Tomorrow & Tomorrow (The first book of mine to score two genuine wild catches.)
Ordinary Jack (Another one without release notes because I was too slow.)
The King of Elfland's Daughter (I really had no excuse to be so slow making release notes on this one!)

I don't count charity shop releases in this category, though. I've donated over a thousand books with pre-numbered labels, and I've had journal entries for some of them, but a charity shop is too obvious - both as somewhere to give away a book, and somewhere to go looking for one. (That said, I once almost bought one of my own releases. Oops!). I do have a couple of semi-wild catches - books that were in the almost-wild, and got caught:

The Mouse Butcher At the 2010 Unconvention, the hotel had some public bookshelves in the lobby. Becky suggested we fill them, I offered this book, and it has been caught and released again there.
Burke's Connections. Caught by someone after the release walk in Swindon. My name is on the release, although it wasn't one I actually took into town.
Der mit dem Wolf tanzt I have no idea what I did with this book. The number is an early pre-numbered label, but I have no recollection of sticking a label in a German book, and I have no idea how the book got to Berlin. I've not been there since before I was a BookCrosser!
April Fools (I think this was originally a charity shop release, but I'll include it for its two wild catches!)
The Vampire Tapestry (caught by another bookcrosser at the Unconvention)
Treasure Hunting (I left this in a geocache, and it was "found" by the cache's owner)
Dragon on a Pedestal (Release notes for the church book stall, but donated to a school library and journalled by a pupil)
Prime Suspect 2 (In two minds as to whether this release counts as wild. It was at the unconvention, and we (a table of bookcrossers) gave it to our waitress at a restaurant. And now it's turned up in Munich, of all places.)

My Wild Finds

Within a few weeks I have found two wild books, after over two years as a bookcrosser without finding a thing.

The Diary of a Killer Cat (Released in Coalville by a local bookcrosser)
The Inflatable Shop (This was in a geocache, a hidden store where you can drop things off for people to find, with GPS information on the web. I don't have GPS, so finding was a bit harder.)

Release project for 2004

I intended to release a book into the wild each day during 2004. Books were to be genuinely in the wild, not aimed at any particular Bookcrosser. Advance releases don't count, but if I missed one (through illness, for example) I had to make it up as soon as possible.

In the end, I released (as near as I can judge) 397 books into the wild during 2004. (I had hoped to make it 400, but...) By the end it was getting to be a bit of a bind, though. I was missing days most weeks, and the release for new year's eve was made in 2005. Three months in Germany - for which I had to buy German books specially - didn't help. I still have a box or so of books for release, so I expect to go on releasing, but not at quite the same rate!

Book Rays I've Started

I am trying to send some of my favourite books and authors on rays, to increase their circulation. A few are already under way:

The Silver Metal Lover is one of my favourite books ever. The ray will never close, so PM me if you'd like to take part.
Power of Three was my favourite book from when I was 10 years old until well into my twenties.
Charmed Life, probably the best-known book by Diana Wynne Jones, and The Lives of Christopher Chant, a prequel, will be travelling together as a single ray.
The Dragon in the Sea is a really good future thriller by Frank Herbert.

Some more rays are going to start soon. Again, PM me if you're interested, and I'll put you on the list.

The Grand Sophy. Currently my favourite Georgette Heyer, and certainly one of her funniest.
Wasp. Written by Eric Frank Russel in the 1950s, this science fiction is amazingly topical.

If you want to join any of my book rays, please remember to say which book you'd like to read, where in the world you are and where you're prepared to send it when you've finished it.

Pre-numbered Labels

I used to run a charity book stall from time to time, usually at events connected with my parents' church (in Somerset) or mine (in Leicestershire). Before the recent problems with pre-numbered labels, I put many labels on books offered for sale or leftovers (which went to charity shops)

298969-297068, 497698-497757, 660200-660339, 1139030-1139239 and 1170200-1170599 in 2003; 1189833-1190133, 1206069-1206368, 1284310-1284510 and some random numbers in the range 1347XXX (for which I had difficulty in downloading labels) in 2004.

Vanishing Books

A few of my books I have registered, but haven't appeared on the system. Unfortunately, some I released before I discovered the problem.

So far, vanishing books I've released:
Black Man's Palaver (Isobel Ryan), released in Coalville in early 2004 (I think)
Mysterious Miss Slade (Dick King-Smith), released in Birmingham 17 July 2004
The Silver Madonna, released in Birmingham 17 July 2004
Dream Date, released in Coalville 11 December 2004
Giraffe in a Jam (Lucy Daniels), released for a release challenge

And some I managed to spot before releasing:
Everything You Always Suspected Was True About Advertising
Three Great Historical Romances
Focus on Love (Mandy Anson)
The Works (edited by Paul Cookson)
Short Walks to Country Pubs

People who find these should be able to make journal entries. It's just that the books don't appear on searches or bookshelves...