BookCrossing in the Bulrushes

On a recent holiday at Goolwa, on the coast of South Australia, I took the opportunity to release a few books at the park across the road from my rental accommodation, not expecting that I would shadow a caught book along a coastal road at dusk.

From the window of my room I could keep an eye on my books out in the wild that I placed soon after arriving in Goolwa. Within a few hours two of the books had been picked up by a woman. It was two days until "The Lord Of The Far Island" by Victoria Holt had been picked up. It was released at an appropriate location, in a tree within sight of Hindmarsh Island across the water from Goolwa, although not quite as gothic a location as the island in the novel.

Passing by the window that day I happened to see two women and several children near the pine tree in which I had hidden the book. The children played around the tree, trying to climb its branches, and inevitably found the clearly labelled book in its clear snap-lock bag. One of the women opened it and read the inside label before putting it into the bag and tucking it under her arm. The group moved off and on impulse I put on my shoes and jacket and followed them at a discreet distance.

I have heard stories of books being thrown away or ripped up and I thought if I followed, I could retrieve it if it was cast aside. Normally I wouldn't follow someone who picked up a book I had released, but because I read and enjoyed the book I felt some kind of attachment to it and was concerned about it. I felt like some kind of Miriam, who in the Old Testament in the Bible secretly followed her baby brother Moses to keep watch over him as he was cast adrift in the river. He was rescued from his reed basket in the bulrushes and adopted by an Egyptian princess.

The woman who took my book with her was far from an Egyptian princess, but as she and the children disappeared from sight at a bend in the track, I could only hope that she would appreciate the book. I did my best to let it go and let it begin its journey as I turned and walked home.

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