I heard about this system where people leave books in public places for random people to read.

The idea is that if you read a good book, you leave it somewhere with a note saying where you left it, and that you want other people to read then do the same somewhere else.

Never encountered this before my self but a few people have said that they have heard of something like that.

Does anyone have more info? Or perhaps you have even found one?

Never even heard of it, But it sounds like a cool idea. The only problem is with some of the people *cough*chavs*cough* you get round here any book you left out would likely end up thrown at your head.

Might work on a uni campus or something though

From what I know, that stuff happens at starbucks all the time.
But that isn't first hand knowledge because a) I hate coffee, I rarely read outside of school, and c)I don't live in Seattle.

Are you talking about this?

I understand that moby asks his listeners to bring books along to his concerts and swap them with other concert goers. (but then puts horrible encryption on his albums so you cant make them MP3s the hypocrite... mummble so much for copyright issues mr moby mummble grumble).

Bingo. Thats the thang.

A friend once found a book called 'The Adventures of Wim' on a bus. He read it, enjoyed it, and gave it to me. I read it, enjoyed it, and gave it to a good friend, she read most of it, then lost it on the bus, and so the circle was complete!

Amusingly the book was all about following the paths presented to you by life, chance, and coincidence. It was written by Luke Rhinehart, author of 'The Dice Man', which will explain a lot for those that know that book.

Yep you recommended that one to me. I read and really liked.

The problem is, I like my books and I don't want to give them up.

Same here. I love this idea, but I'd wind up dumping all ten thousand copies of that "Island of the Dolphins" we had to read in fifth grade about the state. And people would burn my house down, because it's a terrible book.

I love the idea, but I can't part with anything. I have to keep my books because a) having a full bookshelf makes me look really cultured an' shit, and I might want to read them again.

However, I just started reading a book and gave up after two chapters because it was total gash. I might leave that in a public lavatory. One that doesn't have any toilet paper in it.

I like my books quite a lot as well, but sometimes I wind up with two copies of the same book. That might be a handy system for deciding what to leave. I'd like to leave copies of Good Omens by Pratchett and Gaiman all over the place, as it's most definitely worth several reads to catch all the little jokes.

I've 'given' many people Perfume: A Story Of A Murderer. More than they were exgirlfriends or mates and I've even broken with them or we fell out. Then never got it back .

I'd rather they got lost on a bus if I had the choice.

I think I might just go out and buy another copy of Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, or 1984 by Orwell, just to leave somewhere.

But where should I leave them? Around here (rural Suffolk), the people who would appreciate them would have probably already read them!

I was told about it in my pub, perhaps a pub there?

Could do. Among the farmers and alcoholics, someone might want to pick up a book to do more with it than swat a fly or use it as toilet paper.

Sorry, I'm being too harsh on the people in pubs around here

I'm sure they would at least read the title before using it to swat flies...


I could leave it in a pub in the city perhaps. *ponders*

Somewhere like an Internet cafe, a university campus with lots of intellectual people, in a fast-food restaurant... any of those might be good, especially if you leave a note saying to read it and pass it on. Or you could put it in a lost and found box and put a big note on the cover telling people what to do. Just not in a bathroom.

I've done it! I got a copy of Sophie's World from a thirft place for $.50 and set it free.

I don't think I could think of a better book than that to "set free". Hooray and well done!

There is only one book that's been "set free" in my area, and it's apparently about Christianity and how it can help you. Could have guessed...They also left another one (in a town close to us) in the men's restroom in an art musem.

Thanks! Although.. at the time of the leaving, I was feeling lazy and dropped it in a deli near the school where lots of students and day laborers go to get cheap coffee. So it backfired and a vague acquintance picked it up. She likes it, but we both felt a little disappointed that a stranger didn't find it/leave it. Ah well. It'll continue on its way and someone else (hopefully no one we know!) will get to experience the joy that is Sophie's World

Best of luck with that! I'll have to pick up a copy of Sophie's World and read it myself sometime next year.

While you're there, you need to pick up The Solitaire mystery, also by Gaarder. Completely different from SW, but excellent in it's own right.

Makes me wonder whether the book somehow mysteriously travelled back in time and looped round and round again, with no beginning and no end. Though it would get prgressively tattier, perhaps until the book got thrown away or ignored, and then the cycle would break and the universe collapse. Which, if you think about it, means we only have a limited time before the universe in that timeline collapses and takes the rest of us with it.

Thinking about it, I swear it happened with a pen. I picked up a biro from the floor by my desk one day, then dropped it off the side of the same desk a month or so later. When I looked around for it it had gone. I can only assume that a time portal opened just above the ground and took it back a month or so.

On another note, how come the books don't get wet?

Perhaps the book leavers make sure that the books are left indoors, well away from any doors that are likely to be opened a lot.
Anyway, has anyone on here left a book recently? Inquiring minds want to know.

In a German exam I did recently, the Reading exam included an interview with the book-crossing guy explaining about it. Not really that relavent but I thought it was cool.

Hey! I read that interview in a German-language magazine a little while back. *nerd*

The only stray book I've ever inherited as a result of it being left about was Dante's Inferno. I hope this is not God telling me something.

Also a Chinese lady in a shop gave me some Buddhist texts. She thought I was a boy. Oh well.

I never really connected those two things. Maybe I ought to stop sleeping through church so much.

Meh, a guy in a french airport called me 'Madamoiselle' the other week.

What kind of thing do you think God's saying? Maybe "Learn mediaeval italian and read the original"?