The World is My Oyster

I forgot what I did in the past week. Time went by like POOF!

These days I’ve been spending a huge portion of my time at bookcrossing.com. EVIL! Well, for bookworms like me anyway. Since I joined the community, the books I’ve got surmount more than ever (although I’m talking only about my time in Singapore, not anywhere else. I have heaps of books at my parents’ house in Sydney..) They’re either from Book Ring/Book Ray, book sales, or RABCK.

Just this week alone, I bought 9 books, and that does not include the books coming my way from ring, ray, and RABCK. As if something sets me free (read: nuts)! I guess the community gives me more reasons to buy books, more than anything ;). You can see my To-Be-Read mount. The first 9 books were the ones I bought the past week. I spent a good S$23 for the first 6! *grin* So cheap right? Very very happy lor! I had them yesterday at Times Book Sale @ Expo.

If you’re intrigued about bookcrossing, just drop by to the site and look around. My username is meexia. You can drop me a message. We can organize something together :D. I hope to introduce this to more people who love books as much as I do, especially in Singapore.

More about the terms I threw around just now:

Book Ring. Person #1 has a book to share and posts notice of a book ring in the Book Ring and Ray forum. Interested parties will PM her, and a book ring begins. The book is mailed to Person #2 along with a list of everyone in the ring–without including anyone’s mailing address (for privacy reasons). When Person 2 receives the book, he PM’s Person 3 for his/her address, reads the book as quickly as possible, and mails it off. Two to four weeks has become the standard for keeping a book. My personal suggestion is that if you need it longer than that, you a)let the founder of the ring know, and/or b) send it to the next person, unread, and request that your name be added to the end of the list when you may have more time. Person #3 repeats the cycle. Eventually, the book returns to the original owner.

Book Ray. This works exactly like a book ring except it is never returned to the original owner. Much like a paper ray of sunshine, the book travels forever. When the last person on the ray list finishes the book, they can post it on the wish list forum for more BC readers, or they can release it into the wild.

Book box. Person #1 gathers together a bunch of books, This can be as few as 8 or 10, or as many as 30 or 40 paperbacks. The books can be themed (sci-fi, chick-lit, romance, childrens, etc) or just random books. After posting a message on the Book Ring/Ray forum, s/he gathers a list of interested participants. Box is mailed to Person #2, who takes out a couple of books and puts the same amount back in, then mails it to Person #3. Eventually, the box will make it back to Person #1, who has a lot of new books to read!

Random Act of BookCrossing Kindness — this can take several forms, but the most common is when someone sends you a book without asking for a trade or postage reimbursement. It’s just the act of doing something nice for another BookCrosser.

~ taken straight from bookcrossing faqs

Happy weekend!