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Saturday was the 12th anniversary of the day I joined BookCrossing.com. Twelve years ago, I was curious about this site that provided me with an venue for labeling and tracking my books. I had been a member of wheresgeorge.com for a while, and had discovered BookCrossing through a link on the WheresGeorge page. As I joined the site, I had little expectation that it would come to fill such a large part of my life, introducing me to new friends from around the world, and broadening my reading horizons substantially.
As luck would have it, Saturday was also this year's Gaithersburg Book Festival in Maryland. As usual, the local DC area BookCrossers had a booth beside the event sponsors, to give away books (registered on BookCrossing, naturally) and generally promote BookCrossing. It was the perfect way to celebrate my 12th anniversary on the site. Together, we brought about 2,100 books to the event, and by the end of the afternoon, we had a mere handful left. I got to catch up with my local BookCrossing friends and talk to strangers about books and BookCrossing. Even the severe thunderstorm that tried to drown us as we headed to dinner couldn't dampen my spirits after the success of the day.
It is hard to articulate all of the reasons I continue to find participating in BookCrossing so rewarding. A lot of it has to do with the people I've gotten to know through the website. But I still get a thrill when I randomly leave a book somewhere for a stranger to find. My hope is that finding the book will motivate them to read more, or to read something different. And when I get an e-mail telling me that a journal entry has been entered for one of my books, it is like a little miracle that can brighten my entire day.
So, after twelve years of BookCrossing, I have no intentions of quitting, or even slowing down. How many more books can I share in the next twelve years?
As luck would have it, Saturday was also this year's Gaithersburg Book Festival in Maryland. As usual, the local DC area BookCrossers had a booth beside the event sponsors, to give away books (registered on BookCrossing, naturally) and generally promote BookCrossing. It was the perfect way to celebrate my 12th anniversary on the site. Together, we brought about 2,100 books to the event, and by the end of the afternoon, we had a mere handful left. I got to catch up with my local BookCrossing friends and talk to strangers about books and BookCrossing. Even the severe thunderstorm that tried to drown us as we headed to dinner couldn't dampen my spirits after the success of the day.
It is hard to articulate all of the reasons I continue to find participating in BookCrossing so rewarding. A lot of it has to do with the people I've gotten to know through the website. But I still get a thrill when I randomly leave a book somewhere for a stranger to find. My hope is that finding the book will motivate them to read more, or to read something different. And when I get an e-mail telling me that a journal entry has been entered for one of my books, it is like a little miracle that can brighten my entire day.
So, after twelve years of BookCrossing, I have no intentions of quitting, or even slowing down. How many more books can I share in the next twelve years?
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