Book Crossing has arrived at Barrats A

Putting your feet up with a good book

One of the things I like to do on holiday is read books.  It’s not an activity exclusive to holidays of course, but it’s one of the few occasions I have the time to do it.  I have a strong suspicion I’m not on my own here.

I’ve always found the pile of books ferreted away on shelves in holiday accommodation intriguing.  Who left them here?  How long have they been there? Can I borrow one? What happens if I don’t finish it before I leave? – The last question probably being most poignant for me given how slow a reader I am!

Well, that’s where it seems BookCrossing comes in very hand.  It’s away of sharing your ‘good reads’ with others, leaving them behind and giving them ‘permission’ to use them. Each book in the scheme has a book ID which enables members to ‘tag and track’ the book as it travels the world.  So you may well be able to see who left it there and where its next exciting destination is if you log onto the website.

You can even search for specific titles or authors and see where they have been released into the wild.  These bookcrossing zones can be anywhere from cafes, shopping centres, a crook of a tree and of course holiday homes like ours.  Apparently there are around 6 million books registered all over the world, in all sorts of languages.

So far I’ve only released 2, Dublin 4 (Maeve Binchy) and Talking to Addison (Jenny Colgan). Not the most sought after perhaps, but they are a start. However, I’m in the process of compiling a varied selection that will hopefully appeal to a range of guests (e.g Ian McEwan, Jodi Piccoulet, Dan Brown), so watch this space.

I must admit I’m quite keen to crack on with my novels so I can pass them on in the knowledge that I can share a potential inspirational, touching or humours story.  And talking of humorous (and fluffy for those of you who like animals), I thought this little clip introduced the concept quite well.

So all I’ve got to do now is find more hours in the day…