Leuk kadootje ontvangen...

... van boekenspookje. Een prachtige boekenlegger met mijn naam erop, een plaatje van boekenspookje en zelfs de cover van een van de boeken die ik heb losgelaten!

Wat een hoop werk heeft boekenspookje gemaakt van de spannende spokenchallenge. Uiteindelijk hield ik het niet vol om echt mee te doen.
Er waren zulke mooie releases. Zelfs een waarbij de bookcrosser een boek ging loslaten in het donker, geheel verkleed als Heks met een eng beest in haar mond. Akelig spookachtig.

Daar was ik niets bij met die paar releases die ik deed. De opdracht was spannend, over spoken, en ook de loslaatplek zou spannend, spookachtig, creepy mogen zijn. in de instructie werd onder andere genoemd dat straatnamen en boek- en schrijversnamen met HEL erin mogelijk zouden zijn. Nou daar kon ik wel iets op vinden. Een boek van HELla Haasse, en een loslaatplek aan de *HEL*lendoornseberg.

Het boek dat ik losliet: De zwarte kat van Edgar Allen Poe... een plaatje van de voorkant belandde ook op de boekenlegger.

Bedankt, boekenspookje!

# 7 Children's book in a playground and # 8

On Sunday we went to visit my mother in law. I had been planning to leave a book somewhere near where she lives. For one reason, because I joined in a Bookcrossing Challenge, 'Leave 52 books in 52 different towns/villages'. To be able to leave something when I travel I had prepared several books, among them quite a few children's books.

Among them this book for small children with lovely illustrations. It is about a small elephant that wants a little brother or sister. It is written in Dutch: 'Tetkees zoekt een baby' which means something like 'Trumppeter looks for a baby'

I know there are some children's playgrounds in her village. So we went to one and left this children's book there.


While we were at it I decided to leave one for a grown up as well.

It was blazing hot. No one around. Still I felt a little funny. A few hours later I had a little peak to sea whether someone had found them. They were still there, then. I hope they have found a new owner by now.

Second release: Karin Slaughter

So my first release was a bit hesitant. For my second and third release I had prepared a little better. On a Sunday I was going for a visit in Rotterdam. I had a few books registered beforehand. This time I knew a few about some places where to leave a book.

An informed newby
I had read the pages on the bookcrossing website under the headings "Newbies" and "Release techniques". Why should anyone wonder about release techniques. Well, the purpose of most bookcrossers is getting their books to other people who might like to read it, and maybe even get to people who will get into reading alltogether (or more likely into reading a new kind of book). They get really excited when the book they released will get a journal entry of the finder, telling them they found it, and later telling about how it was released again. But even though most will be reasonably happy if a book ends up on someone else's shelf collecting dust for a while, they will really love for the book to be passed on (and on and on).

Bookcrossing nightmares
One of the nightmares of bookcrossers is for the book to end up being picked up by cleaners and be chucked into a bin, never to be read anymore. So we will be very happy when we hear from a book - especially if it turns up after many years, or quite far from the place it was first released.

So getting a journal from a finder, even from an anonymous one is a thrill - and a relief as well. For this reason you will find questions on the bookcrossing forum about how to get a higher catch rate.... And how one could go about getting there. Does it make a difference how or where one does a release.

Bookcrossing dreams of success
It looks like there are many places where you get quite a good chance for the book to be picked up - and for it to get a journal from the finder on the site. Leaving a book in a place in nature seems to work well. Also to make it perfectly clear to the person finding the book that YES, this is a book that you (YES YOU), the passerby, can take with you.

Preparation
So this second time I was better informed about the how. Stickers on a book at all sides, cover it against the rain in special plastic bags. Paste a label explaining bookcrossing inside the book. Make sure it is registered at the bookcrossing site (it gets a unique number, its BCID). And perhaps add a leaflet about bookcrossing in it. So I had collected labels from the Dutch website. And I had bought some stickers about bookcrossing in the BD supply store. The books I registered were labeled, stickered and bagged. They lie waiting for their day of release.

Prepared this way I went to the train station. My second release was a small book written by Karen Slaughter, a mystery / thriller. I looked for my platform. Walked to the end of it. There I found a bench, no one around. I left the bag on the bench and then went and sat in the train that rolled into the station. And when the train left, I waved at the book still lying on the bench. Good luck!

And it was lucky. By evening when I returned home, I found that the book had been found, and a journal entry was made by an anonymous finder (an AF in the bookcrossing lingo). It said: "I found the book on the platform and it traveled with me to Rotterdam." Apparently, it followed me on the next train. ;-)

Yes! A catch! I was thrilled.