Recent Book Activity

I am a retired computer information analyst and public librarian. If you'd like to know more about me, take a look at my Wikipedia Editor Personal Page and/or my FaceBook Profile.

Our family's love of books is truly genetic. One of my earliest memories was the weekly family library visit (in about 1948), which continued until I left home at age 20. Our daughter and granddaughter are also BXers. Between our home and our daughter's home, we probably harbor (imprison??) over 3,000 books, most waiting to be read!!

I can't imagine life without access to books. That is why the idea of releasing books into the wild is so attractive to me. There are too many people who have never thought about (or cannot afford to) avail themselves of the pleasure of books. One person can help a handful, but a worldwide movement such as BookCrossing can reach millions of the bibliographically challenged! ;-)))

I have been asked by several people about my BXing techniques. I get most of my books from garage and rummage sales. As I have suggested to several BXers, "You'd be surprised the unbelievable deals (and outright donations) you can get if your heart is pure, your cause is just ... and you arrive at a sale about 15 minutes before they have to haul their left-overs back up to the attic!"

As far as the way I release books, I tend to leave them in very public places, benches in parks, bus shelters, highway rest stops, coffee shops, and laundromats full of bored people. I aim for places where there are a lot of folks milling about, but leave the books where no individual is currently sitting, so they are technically free! But they are usually taken fairly quickly, so my releases aren't very good ones for "BX Hunters".

I am also very active on PaperBackSwap.com (PBS), where I am known as ChanurCousin. I love to trade books, but I only do it there, as there are a number of folks on BookCrossing that don't like to see trading here. Also, at the present time, I have my AVL books in cartons awaiting release, and finding individual titles is highly unlikely (except for the ones I have listed on PBS, which I keep in a separate place).

Because of the high cost of shipping, I don't trade or RABCK books outside the US and Canada.