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April 7, 2006
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IN THIS ISSUE...


BOOKCROSSING NEWS

When Bad Things Happen to Good BookCrossers

BookCrossing respects and protects the privacy of all individuals using the BookCrossing.com site. Individually identifiable information about you is not willfully disclosed to any third party without first receiving your permission, as explained in our privacy policy. From time to time, an individual will try to inappropriately use the forum or PM system for promotion or advertisement. As soon as we become aware of the abuse of site policy, our volunteer Support Team steps in to correct the situation. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple message to the offending member; sometimes more drastic measures, such as monitoring or blocking the member are necessary. Whichever the case may be, if you see something that you feel is not in adherence with our privacy and anti-spam policies, please contact Support via the contact us link. You might also want to check out our FAQs on book promotion and signature lines as well.

In The News

There's so much going on in the world of BookCrossing that it's getting difficult to report on all of our newsworthiness, but here's a smattering of news since our last newsletter.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane! No, It's Skyring!

March 31 saw the start of travels for one of Australia's most famous BookCrossers. Skyring left Canberra, headed for a global BookCrossing trot. His travel itinerary is amazing and includes stops in Australia, Japan, UK, France, USA, and Canada, with visits to local BookCrossers each place. (If you include airport stopovers, you can add Hong Kong, Ireland and a number of other spots to the list!) We're starting a thread in Chit Chat called "Skyring Sighted Here!" for folks to keep up on his whereabouts. We hear tell that he and some of his famous releasing exploits have already made the paper not once, but twice in Charleston, South Carolina (And he's not due there til mid-April!)

Spring Specials in the Supply Store

Bulbs are blooming and birds are singing here in Idaho, and the Supply Store has a few ideas for celebration. For the month of April the store has two great offers for its customers: get a FREE Flap Pack Ultimate Blue backpack (BP-FPUN2013) on any order over $100 and buy one/get one FREE on leather key fobs! The extra items will not show up on your order invoice, just in your mailbox when your order arrives. Our Supply Store Manager has plans for monthly specials at the store. Be sure to visit the Announcements forum at the end of April to see what May will bring!

P.S. Shopping now is a great way to earn your wings for the Happy Birthday BookCrossing Contest TracyShannon is sponsoring this month.

Challenge With A Cause

Kudos to bethieb who found a way to put her books where her beliefs are. Her 2006 Arthritis Walk — You Can Make a Difference Challenge won recognition as a creative fundraising idea for the Arthritis Foundation of Nashville. Congrats on the mention, the challenge and on walking for such a great cause.



NEW BOOKCROSSING ARTICLES

RESCUE READER'S DIGEST CONDENSED BOOKS!
 Uses for these versatile books
 by Laurel McCormick (reagann)

Reader's Digest condensed books. You could call them the Cinderella of the literary world - undervalued until the fairy godmother shows their worth. As a decorator, avid reader, and collector of Reader's Digest condensed books, I experience a full body shiver at the thought of casually disposing of them. So here are some good homes for these versatile and beautifully bound books....

[read it all at http://www.bookcrossing.com/articles/2214]

BOOKCROSSING 'TRAIN'ING
 or, How I Spent My Kids' Spring Break
 by Spiritwolf922

Spring Break is a time to kick back and enjoy the time off from school, laze around, play video games, watch mind-numbing cartoons and have a laugh. Well, this Spring Break, my two children are old enough to be easy to travel with... except maybe when we hit the tourist traps, then it's, "I want, I want, I want." ...

[read it all at http://www.bookcrossing.com/articles/2236]

A VERY SPECIAL BOOKCROSSING DAY
 What else would you expect at the marriage of two BookCrossers?!
 by alison-and-ulen (chelseagirl)

On 25 February 2006, two BookCrossers, Chelseagirl and ZB (AKA alison-and-ulen), got married. Nothing unusual in that, except that BookCrossing played a major part in the day, of course!...

[read it all at http://www.bookcrossing.com/articles/2239]

NEWBIES SPEAK!
 Brief bits from three new BookCrossers
 by BCNewsletter

Presenting a compilation of three brief articles from three new members from three parts of our BookCrossing world! ...

[read it all at http://www.bookcrossing.com/articles/2248]

RELEASING AT STARBUCKS
 Is it part of the language now?
 by Jacky

In the past few months, I have released several BookCrossing books at the downtown Toronto Starbucks just North of Yonge and Bloor (where the two main lines cross). I can easily leave a book or two on my way somewhere else, and I've always liked this particular Starbucks. ...

[read it all at http://www.bookcrossing.com/articles/2223]

CALL FOR WRITERS

Want to write for BookCrossing? If your article is accepted, you could see it featured here in the next newsletter. What topics do we need? Anything about books, reading, or BookCrossing — tutorials, release and catch stories, well-traveled book stories, funny BookCrossing experience stories — you get the idea. Write it up, then submit it here:

http://www.bookcrossing.com/articles/submit



GLOBAL BOOKCROSSING GROWTH CHARTS

Top 10 Countries All-Time
USA 204,640 (45%)
UNITED KINGDOM 44,063 (10%)
CANADA 32,027 (7%)
GERMANY 30,128 (7%)
SPAIN 22,822 (5%)
AUSTRALIA 20,428 (4%)
ITALY 14,831 (3%)
FRANCE 9,399 (2%)
NETHERLANDS 6,725 (1%)
PORTUGAL 6,363 (1%)

Top 10 Countries Last Week
USA 573 (32%)
UNITED KINGDOM 266 (15%)
GERMANY 118 (7%)
FRANCE 85 (5%)
SPAIN 72 (4%)
CANADA 71 (4%)
NETHERLANDS 57 (3%)
AUSTRALIA 55 (3%)
SWEDEN 50 (3%)
ITALY 28 (2%)


THE LATEST WILD BOOK CATCHES

Wild books released by our members are being caught all over the world, every day! Our site watch forum is where members post news of great wild book catches. Here are some of the best from the last few days...

Wow! A cool story/journal entry
http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/3768691
by KarenZero

Castles and more
This weekend Historic Scotland (the body who look after many of Scotland's ancient momuments) held their annual free entry weekend. DH and I visited many of the castles in the Borders of Scotland; that is the border with England which has been the scene of border skirmishes and bloody battles for hundreds of years, hence a castle on practically every corner! So 2 days, 8 castles and abbeys and one neolithic burial chamber, 8 wild releases, 5000 years of history and thousands of steps up and down spiral staircases later, I return home all historied out. I'm delighted to find one journal entry already.

Here are my releases (all with photos of the varied ancient buidlings)

Tantallon Castle: http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/

Dirleton Castle: http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/

Blackness Castle: http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/

Dryburgh Abbey: http://bookcrossing.com/---/ (journalled)

Melrose Abbey: http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/

Jedburgh Abbey: http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/

Linlithgow Palace: http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/

Hermitage Castle: http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/
by swan-scot

2.5yrs later and they are "still reading"
Perseverance? Or...? LOL

http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/988505

(Yah, I realize it might not be one single person who has had the book all that time.)
by saidenuj

Now THIS is funny!
I just got the release alert in my inbox on this book:

http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/3868497
by MartiP

First wild release gets thoughtful entry by AF
mspeel's first wild release was caught and journaled two months later- - and the finder says it's "relevant to so much that is going on in my life right now." Great karma!

http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/3618512

by LemmiSchmoeker

first of "Potok-day" wild releases reports in
On Feb 17, 3 bookcrossers wild-released 9 titles by Chaim Potok to celebrate the anniversary of his birth: http://bookcrossing.com/---/3267819

One of these has now been journalled: http://bookcrossing.com/---/3701269, and the finder has signed up as a bookcrosser. Tervetuloa (Welcome), Miznut!
by Potok-fan

"The little Indiana Jones in me woke up..."
http://bookcrossing.com/---/3837748

I released "The Zahir" by Paulo Coelho yesterday and it's been caught!


by Sobergirl

"It's a sign"
This book about decluttering one's life was found my someone looking to do just that.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/

Gee, if she really gets into BC, the clutter may only get worse, book clutter anyway. Maybe she needs to start decluttering now to make way for an up and coming book obsession??? Hopefully...
by guinaveve

"There's a book inside!"
Cute catch for Kristamd.

http://bookcrossing.com/---/3789287
by MaryZee

Lucky new member finds two books!
This lucky new member found two wild books 3 months apart. She made both journal entries today (I guess after finding the second one). She joined and says she�ll be releasing both of the books. Welcome Ashleyelvenking!

http://bookcrossing.com/---/2525825
http://bookcrossing.com/---/3506546

by LazyDaisy0413

Poetry release finds a very happy reader in London
This is another of those catches that just makes BC for me!

http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/3839360
by nicolesinger

"Like finding a hidden treasure"
A great catch for erinart: )

http://www.bookcrossing.com/---/3146402
by hunnyb

My first gas station catch (thanks MaryZee for the idea!)
http://bookcrossing.com/---/2919961

And I got a new member, yay!
by Sunshinedreem

Second 3 yr catch for me this week!
http://bookcrossing.com/---/373196

I must be living right!
by Sonora

This is so cool - I got two new journal entries today...
...one from a book that's had its second wild catch since I first sent it out on the book relay( http://bookcrossing.com/---/2089143) , and another from a book I released just yesterday as a first-day-of-spring release( http://bookcrossing.com/---/3829343) . [I was especially pleased to see that catch, and not just for its own sake- when I released the book I was hoping it would make an appearance, however brief, in the "recently released" sidebar box, since it has such a lovely cover, but my timing must have been off as it didn't make the cut. But it's now appearing in the "recently caught" sidebar- however briefly- so I feel better! {grin}]
by GoryDetails




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