As I sit down to write once again, wondering what has kept me away for so long, a quote from LOTR is crawling into my head. "All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost...". So goes one of my all time favourites, the latter part here reflecting what I have in mind now.....
I was wandering about aimlessly. Ahem. Not in the real sense, but in the cyber world. And then I came across this article, mentioning something like giving out books in exchange for a review. A click here, and I was there!
"BookSneeze" - that was the name of the site I had landed upon. A queer name for what I felt had a great idea to back itself. An idea so simple, it just gets you thinking as to how one can sustain doing this. Here is how it works. Any blogger can register themselves with the site. Once done, they get a book of their choice from the BookSneeze collection for yourself! What next? You read it, review it, and post it in your blog and a consumer website. You provide BookSneeze the link to your review posted in a consumer website like Amazon, BarnesAndNoble,etcetra and the cycle starts all over again.
Agreed, the collection does not give you the choice that you would look forward to from a bookstore. But if you've entered the stage where you are willing to brave any book, and if you would like to write a review stating what you felt reading it, there should be nothing to stop you! Available to all bloggers at the US, they are willing to send over abroad as well, provided you have an established blog which they believe would help favourably to cover their shipping and product costs(yes, I'd asked them....and in fact, as I write this, I've got a mail from them saying my application has been accepted!!!! whoa!!! :D ).
Impressed with what I had come across, I decided to go ahead in my search to find more "ideas" with respect to books. A host of search strings, a million results, and at the end of it all I managed to find one another result really worth talking about.
"BookCrossing" - Ballycumber C. BookCrossing is the name of the little running book mascot of the site (the way it seems to be running free, without a care in the world does convey what they have in mind). So whats special here. This site, which has users of the order of hundreds of thousands, and books registered going up to millions, is striving to make the whole world a library! Makes no sense? On the contrary, it is quite simple. Registered users can register books that are rotting at home, which they've read/not read, and its journey begins there. Every registered book is associated with an unique BCID which becomes its identity for life. Next, the book is left alone in the open world, with perhaps a note stating that its part of the BookCrossing mission. The next person who comes across it, if he/she gives the slightest thought, will know what their part of. They can go to the site, enter the BCID and state that the book is in their possession. In this manner, the trace of the book can be followed. Once they are done with it, they can release it back to the "library" and its voyage continues. Whats more, users can go hunting for books, with those releasing the book being given the option of stating where they are releasing it. It does tend to bring a feel of adventure over something as simple as reading a book! They've certainly brought a new dimension to the phrase "hunting for that book!" :D
So what is the bottomline...
Release more books to this world to aid the process of making it an ever-growing library.
And how do we go about this....
By writing, and writing, and writing! (govi style)
P.S. Am I a die-hard Harry Potter fan? Or has everyone who has reached this point of the article realised that the first letter of the last three lines adds up to R.A.B ?? :P
