Today I checked out BookCrossing.
I rarely go to malls such as I Utama, or The Curve etc, but today made a special trip to 1 Utama to investigate BookCrossing. This is an international read and exchange scheme for book lovers and is already in 120 countries. The idea is you leave books in public places for people to find and ultimately spread the joy of reading. You can register on the internet, and then mark each book with its own ID number, then leave the books at wild places or an Official BookCrossing Zone (OBCZ) .
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| no one looking at the cupboard |
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| the cupboard |
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| someone approaches the cupboard |
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| and opens it !! |
As mentioned above, you can leave books at wild places, such as on a train or bus, on a park bench, or you can simply pass it to a friend.
1 Utama is the first mall in Asia to set up an area dedicated to the community-based campaign, in partnership with BookCrossing Inc and Malaysia's biggest bookstore chain, MPH Bookstores. It's called BookCross@1U . Every month, 50 books sponsored by MPH will be released and placed in the lounge.
I signed up for BookCrossing on their website, and then registered the first book I wanted to 'free'. I registered for the book's ID number online and then wrote the details inside the front cover. You can also buy preprinted labels, or if you are lucky, pick them up in the lounge (there were none when I went).
If you take a book, don't forget to make a journal entry on the website. An email will then be sent to the person who released the book so he or she can see the book's journey.
It's a great idea and I just hope people don't abuse it, and take books and leave rubbishy ones.
See more at www.bookcrossing.com
And also Bibliobuli's blog
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© Liz Price <br>
No reproduction without permission
Ahaaaaa. A good idea is no good if implementation is BAD. Preferably the center should be at public library or giant book outlets and not at shopping mall or supermarket which is not a reader's site.
ReplyDeletePublic libraries don't seem to be well used in Msia (at least compared to England etc), whereas large shopping centres do attract more people who are likely to have an interest in books.
ReplyDeleteThe photo does not show that the people are interested. They seem to be more in their own shopping rather than reading. Or maybe a giant book shop will fare better.
ReplyDelete