A gift to me from the lovely author of this book. I believe this is the first copy registered on BookCrossing. WOW!

There has been a lot of discussion about various aspects of this book. For reference sake, here are some of the forum threads:

The books in the book here. (A total of 52 books get mentioned.)

Where BookCrossers first appear. (40 real life BookCrossers appear in Crossing Paths, including yours truly, though the section I helped Debbie with for Folly Beach and Charleston got edited out. But I do have a journal entry on page 138,)

I look forward to reading this.



Received October 9, 2010. Registered on BookCrossing October 14, 2010

I'm on page 309 of 600 of Crossing Paths - the Book...: had to take a break the other day -- I get a little befuddled with all the goings on between characters.

Finished this last night and am amazed at a number of things. The author certainly put a lot of hard work into details in this book -- matching up books with specific locations etc. I must admit, it left me feeling a little inadequate. I love themed releases, and if I'm travelling, may seek books with titles or subjects that would fit my destination, but I've never travelled to someplace only because I wanted to release a book there. (No, wait, that's not true entirely. I wanted to release Fahrenheit 451 at Bebelplatz, the spot where books were burned by the German Student Association May 10, 1933, but I didn't travel to Berlin just to do it. I knew I was going to Berlin and brought the book with me for that release.)

But in this book, Jane/Ali/Sarah hops on a train and travels to another country just to make a release based on the book's plot. It was a little stalker-ish that there were so many people tracing and predicting her moves by her bookshelf, and trying to figure out where she'd go next based on the titles she had left to release. I guess our Charleston BookCrossing group, close as we are, doesn't interact the way other BookCrossers do. Or maybe we're not that attentive. Dunno. Are there really groups that are as close and intertwined (both as friends and lovers) as these folks are? And are there really people as fortunate to hunt and find as many books as these people do, or have as many catches out in the wild by other BookCrossers? If so, I'm living in the wrong part of the world. And though I'm fairly well-read, there were a number of titles I'd not heard of, which I will have to track down to investigate. I may have to change my approach to themed releasing, though. I'm pretty simple in those -- a book with boats in the title at the Marina, a book with "eye" in the title at an optician's shop. If I were to be a character in this book, I should have travelled to the Batangan Peninsula or to Yorkshire to make true themed releases.

Anyhow, this was an interesting exercise, and I applaud Debbie's efforts. How she kept the various threads straight and the books in the right hands is a wonder. I imagine she had a wall full of post-it notes that got moved around according to the timeline. I did get a bit confused, but probably due to reading late at night when I was already half in dreamland. But paths were crossing, indeed, all through the story.

One thing that I would have wished for is more of a sense of place in each location. Here were some fabulous and beautiful locations, yet I never really felt as if I travelled there in my mind's eye. I'd love to go to Greece, or France, or even to that lovely B&B in Canada, and am not likely to get there except through my reading. It was nice to run into familiar BookCrossing names in the journal entries, but I do wonder what someone who is not a BookCrosser will make of it all.

But, all in all, I'm glad I read it. It's a monumental effort and I'll be interested to hear what others think.

Bookring for this book is:

North America (from bookczuk):
aetm USA (USA preferred)
SeamonkeyofTVCH USA (North America, USA preferred)
oldreader USA (USA preferred)
Mystery52 USA
plainjane8160 (USA) USA preferred
and back to bookczuk!

There's a UK/EU bookring for it as well being offered by chamonix44

(EU/UK from chamonix44)
marijketje Netherlands (EU okay)
laure69 France (EU preferred)
GronnLivsstil Norway (Intl)
Star69 UK (Intl)
silvia-pco Portugal (EU preferred)
Plum-crazy UK (UK/EU preferred)
Vekiki UK (UK preferred)
Lydiasbooks UK (UK preferred)
seayork2002 UK (UK preferred)
Miss Markey UK (UK preferred)
ReetPetite UK (Intl)
Luanalara Germany (EU preferred)
bestfriends Belgium (Belgium/Netherlands preferred)
bookguide Netherlands (? shipping preferences)
and back to chamonix44. :)

Starting this book on a journey where it will cross paths with other BookCrossers. Very fitting that it goes to Texas first as that's where the book begins.

Sending off to aetm probably tomorrow morning.

Mailed 24 November, Delivery Confirmation code (USPS): 03102640000112354510

The book arrived safely in Austin. Thank you (and chamonix44 too) for making the bookring for it. :)
I'll finish a mystery I'm reading now tonight (I hate leaving books half read if I plan to finish them), and will read this one next. The book looks physically huge - but as a quick look the text looks to have a very comfortable layout for reading.

It took a while to finish (while my sister was visiting, I didn't have enough own time to read - I didn't realize how much that affects my mood. After she returned to Europe it was a few nights straight just read quietly on the bed with the hubby and the cats) this big book. I was on around page 200 when I got interrupted (the visit) and it took a while to get the speed up again with the story.

Debbie's definitely done research for the book. I like the idea of the book a lot, but hmm.. what would I have done differently? Or what do I think of the book now? I'm trying to not make a too huge (or revealing) entry here. READ THE BOOK FIRST before reading my ramble below.

Many of the characters seem to think very much in a same way, very absorbed in their own world in the past, not getting past the death of their relatives/friends/husbands etc. Way too much internal doubting and internal dialog. Jane is also stuck in her past and internal dialogs when she gets the idea to do this around the world trip releasing (only) eight books. Why does she feel the urge to reinvent herself as Ali and then Sarah? What did really happen for Jane's late husband and why is she so stuck in the past? When she travels she doesn't seem to get excited about the things as a tourist would.

I wonder also how do non-bookcrossers see the hobby or the bcers after reading the book? I've met a bunch of bookcrossers (and been in meetings of them) in three countries. Unless I'm with the most hardcore hobbyist many concepts (conventions etc) would go beyond what they know of or are interested in. Stalking following people because their journal entries or release notes are weird? All books get captured? I guess a book can't get open leads, unlike the real life (where a 20 % catch rate for the truly wild books is good). And why are all the books classic literature (or at least I didn't recognize anything that would have been published first in the past 10 years)?

The book is huge, and has 600 pages, too heavy to read on the idle moments out of the handbag. Overall I liked it, but it would have been even better being a bit shorter, with more (and outrageous) external (rather than internal) action, maybe more travelogue or travel observations. And the style of Maeve Binchy would work awesomely with this story.

I have the address of SeamonkeyofTVCH, and will mail the book to her as soon as I can make it to the post office (by next week). Thank you Debbie and bookczuk for making the book ring possible! :)

(Media) mailed to SeamonkeyofTVCH.
USPS delivery confirm # 03101230000082854928
Safe journey "little" book :)

The book arrived (safe and sound) today in the mail... wow, heavy! I'm so used to my Kindle!

Will work on this at home so it could take a little while but hopefully it will be a fairly quick read.

Thanks for the bookring!

I ended up enjoying this much more than I had envisioned. It is a long book (600 pages) and of course it is an Australian author so full of spellings from down unda (no surprise) but the US, Candian and Greek characters in the book seemed likely to use Aussie idiom, while the UK characters were more true to local speech patterns.

But it was a fun read, though seems somewhat far-fetched (but what do I know? Maybe this really happens with bookcrossing, that a person could successfully catch book after book and get so many wild catches journalled with PMs flying back and forth.

As our lovely ring leader mentions, it would be nice to know more about the locations.. but then I guess that would make the book even longer and HEAVIER! I'm SO spoiled with my Kindle that I never took this book out of the house, even though I do read pretty much every place I go, especially when I am driving cancer patients to treatments and spend time in waiting rooms.

I'm quite thankful that I got to be part of this bookring and hope more people will sign up since this is definitely a book that should be read by many and journalled by many. Thanks, bookczuk!

I have the name and address info for oldreader, who is in the same state, just not all that close, and hope to send it off perhaps on Tuesday (Monday being a holiday for the post office). I'll Journal when that has been accomplished.

Sent via Media Mail to Oldreader, next on the list. Hope it arrives safely and that you enjoy the book!

received today.1 and a half ahead of this.started 2 days ago,feb 4??Excellent so far.The author put a lot of work and thought into this one.

Finished last evenng.Amazing book.some bits were far fetched but that is what we call fiction,right?traveling to release a book seems a bit much to me if it as far as that but have gone a few miles.The interaction between characters were good and for the most part believable.Thanks so much for sharing this with us.Would recomment to my friends.

I have taken this on vacation to Big Pine Key in Florida. I should be ready to send it on next week.

I sent the novel on to plainjane8160 today. I found the book interesting in places, but I think it was too long.

This was sent to me in the mail by another Bookcrosser.Thank you,Mystery52!
I look forward to reading it!