This is an experiment that seems to have failed, but not for lack of trying.

The OBCZ of Vanceburg, KY, a small town near the Ohio and West Virginia borders, opened in 2007 as a way to promote reading and a little community activity. We wanted to call it "The Victorian Rose" but thanks to a typo that can't be corrected, what you see is what you get.

At first it was successful, but not in the way we had hoped.

Located inside a restaurant called The Victorian Rose Tea Room, there was a bookcase upstairs where people could take and leave books. There were several takers, all right, but hardly anyone made a journal entry. People started to leave unregistered books as well, which we just registered with Bookcrossing, then numbered and labelled them.

Three years later, the little OBCZ that could was still limping along, still plagued by people not making journal entries after they took the books. On the other hand, those people all live around here, so we pretty much know where the books went.

The OBCZ was "managed" by TheOtherMrsH, who often signed books over to her account so she could make wild releases, trades or RABCKs.

In October 2010, our OBCZ closed, the victim of plain lack of interest. We sent our books to other BC members or other OBCZs, where, we hope, they continue to live on and get new journal entries.

We did not close our account in case someone wanted to see where their book originated and what our story was.

There is talk of perhaps setting the OBCZ up in the library, but that's something we may tackle in 2011. For now, if you got a book from us, please enjoy.