Thanks to the generosity of bookcrosser Hexa, I've just received a copy of Julia Cameron's 'The Vein of Gold' which has been on my Wish List for a while.
A rare week-day spent in London provided me the perfect opportunity to release two books into the wild. Bookcrossers (and readers of this blog) will be familiar with the bookcrossing concept where you leave books in the 'wild' for other people to find, read and then repeat the process.
I left one book on the Bakerloo line and another on the train just before I got off. Will keep my fingers crossed that some book-lover found my books and will report them on the bookcrossing site!
Funnily enough for a Saturday afternoon in August, the tube wasn't that crowded.
Getting on at Marylebone, we got a place to sit immediately. Mr R thumbed through a magazine he found a few seats away - specifically for Australians, New Zealanders and South Africans. Strange combination, I said to Mr R. He had something smart and witty to say about that - if only I could remember it now.
I had a book in my bag that I was itching to leave behind. This bookcrossing thing is crazy. You carry a book with you for days - eyes peeled for a suitable location to leave it. You hope you can leave it and elegantly walk away, without a hassled tourist or a punk running behind you trying to tell you that you forgot your book. It's happened before, you know.
Anyway, this time, the tube held hope. As usual, everybody got off at Oxford Circus, the prospect of shopping bags rapidly filling reflecting in the sunglasses perched on various colored heads. Mr R and I stayed on. We had one more stop to go.
A couple got on - tourists, you could tell. I didn't want them to 'catch' my book - it would be ages before they reported it, if at all. Oh, please, please, I prayed, why can't you send me a Londoner?
At Picadilly Circus, amid reminders to Mind The Gap, Mr R and I disembarked. The tourist couple got off before us. It was a chance I could not miss. Like lightning, the book was out and deposited on the seat. Hah!
The trick to a succesful deposit is to walk away nonchalantly. Not doing so will cause people to be suspicious. These days, you've just gotta be careful.
And so as I walked away (nonchalantly), my heart was going thump-thump. I hoped somebody would pick up my book and take it home. And even better, tell me that he/she had found it.
Having released quite a few books, I wasn't expecting a miracle. But this just goes to show, perseverance pays.
Mr R and I returned home post the afternoon Prom. And there, waiting for me in my inbox, was an email telling me my book had been found and the finder had made an entry on the website.
My first catch! Fabulous! Thank you, Brix of London! You made my day! Happy reading!
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If you have books that you no longer want, give them to me! Or release them yourself. Go on, sharing is good!
http://bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/wordsworth1612
My wishlist for books is at
http://bcwish.cliff1976.net/wordsworth1612/
Take a look and I'd be happy to receive a book. Put up your list so we can do a fair exchange :)
My page at Bookcrossing :
http://bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/wordsworth1612
If you're registering at bookcrossing, do use my screen name (wordsworth1612) to say that I've referred you!
365 Ways to change the World : March 11
Sell Books Online...
GreenMetropolis.com is an online bookstore for recycling books. If you are a buyer, you can find the book you are looking for at a great price. All paperbacks sell for £3.75. There is no minimum order and no postage charges. The website also donates 5p for every book sold to the Woodland Trust's Plant a tree scheme.
If this does not appeal to you, then donate your books to charity. Oxfam is the largest retailer of second hand books in Europe, selling around 11 million books a year. Take your unwanted books to Oxfam or any of the high street charity shops, or use one of the 1000 plus Oxfam 'Book Banks' around the country, usually found next to the glass and newspaper recycling bins.
...and buy them secondhand
What to do with all your old books and magazines
Recycle all the books you no longer need. Get your books into the hands of new readers (save a tree!). Use any cash you raise to support a good cause.
Advice from the World Environmental Organisation
- Donate books to a library
- Sell Study books directly to other students - let them save a ton of money
- Set up a table at your community centre where people can drop off old magazines for others to buy. Then donate the money to charity.
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I also love the idea of Bookcrossing. Set a book free where ever you are!
I've messed up my template trying to add some html. Am working on getting half the page back :(
Till then, visit www.bookcrossing.com , one of my favorite sites. Find your city and see if any books have been released in the wild. You can also give away some of those books piled up in the corner of your room or those under the bed. Declutter your life and help make the world one big library (I want to be librarian!)
For MW's interested in looking for books, read on :
RELEASE ALERT! Another BookCrosser has just made release notes for "ATheory of Everything : An Integral Vision for Business, Politics, Scienceand Spirituality" by Ken Wilber, indicating its release in Mumbai,Maharashtra, at Barista's Coffee on Linking Road, Bandra.Are you interested in catching this book? Click here for details: http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/2482014
Happy hunting!
This bookcrossing thing is so addictive!! Five books labelled and ready to set free on unsuspecting Mumbaiwallahs.What fun! The only question is where to leave them. The train would be a good place, the only problem is that someone might think it's a bomb or an explosive and call the police, so I think I'll hold back the train idea for now. The office, perhaps? Or maybe the helpline ... Anyplace is a good place, as long as people don't think it's a security risk :)
The National Gallery in London is a treasure trove of paintings by some of history's most known and loved artists. Renoir, Monet, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Leonardo: they're all there, within touching distance. And for free. It's delicious to be able to walk upto a masterpeice and feel a shiver go down your spine looking at the rush of colors, seemingly random, but when looked at from afar, they magically fall into place and make delightful sense. The "Making Faces" exhibition was good too. In particular, I liked Rembrandt's "Belshazzar's Feast" . The play of light and shadow, the expression on the faces of the people in the painting was so well done, it's hard to believe that it was a painting and not a computer printout!! Wish I could do even a quarter of that!
Rembrandt's painting reminded me that my days here are numbered too (What does the painting have to do with days being numbered? Click on the link to the painting and find out!!) I'm on my last few days/hours/minutes now. Soon it'll be time to pick up the suitcase and leave. Gatwick airport staff are having a strike the day I'm leaving, so that's a slight worry. I'm going to miss being here with Mr.R. But I'm looking forward to returning home for a couple of things : see my family again, pack up my bags at work and start my adventure with books! For now, I'm just going to start leaving books all over the place thanks to this crazy idea from www.bookcrossing.com . For those of you who haven't yet been to the site, please do so! It's absolutely fabulous! In case you join the site (it's free), you may wish to use me as a referral (screen name on the site : wordsworth1612). Anyway, so that's what I'm going to do. Set some books free.
And when you join bookcrossing.com, find other bookcrossing members at www.meetup.com . I joined the Mumbai bookcrossing group. Promises to be interesting and hopefully fun!
Good bye, England. Good bye,Mr.R. Take care and see you soon!
Mumbai, I'm on my way. (Don't look so scared!) :)
Yesterday, I found an absolutely amazing site called http://www.bookcrossing.com/ . This is a site where the members set books "free" into the wild for other people to find, read and pass on to others. It is an absolutely fantastic idea and I loved it! India has about 1700 odd members, but only 11 books in the wild as of last night. I wonder why? Do we hesitate to share our books - just give them away, half sure that whoever finds it will either a) take it home and keep it for themselves b) take it to the raddi-wallah and get some money for some peanuts c) Can't resist anything free?
Please, please take a look at the site. If you like it enough like I did, go ahead and register as a member - it's free, of course! And remember to refer my id, it's wordsworth1612 . It's such great fun. Can't wait to get back home and let loose a book into the Mumbai wilderness. Who knows, maybe you might find one soon?!
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I spent some time this morning trying to figure out strange sounds in the living room - a peculiar sound that sounds like a bug trapped in the window frame and was trying desperately to get out - a loud buzzzzz that scared me very very much. I moved the blinds, looked at all the windows carefully - but there was just no sign of the bug. And yet the noise persisted. Sometimes loud, sometimes an octave lower... I prayed it wasn't some hideous insect or an animal (now I was being silly), but being alone didn't help at all. Sometime around lunch, I had a brainwave looking at all the trees bending over backward in the pre-autumn breeze and thought that could it be the wind? That reassuring thought calmed me down a bit and as I work, I can still hear the sound of whatever it is, but I'm not scared anymore. I'd rather not deal with insects and animals, but the elements, that's baiye haat ka khel :)
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I got my first concrete peice of advice/offer of help on how to go about starting a bookstore (a virtual one, for starters) .
It's time.
For life to begin.
Cheers.
