Book Lovers Unite!

I have shared my renewed love of  reading here. But now, I've taken it to a new level - and I hope you'll join me!

I have been posting pictures of the books I've read and am ready to pass on to my friends on Facebook. Some books go quickly, others are like the ugly dog at the shelter - people look and keep right on going. This month, one of the pop culture bloggers I follow posted this little tip about a book recommendation site called Goodreads. I checked out the site and decided to join. I haven't entered every single book I've read, but I will in time. I did go back through my blog to get my mini-reviews of the books I read last year. Then, I discovered the site has a swap section. That's when I decided to enter those sad books that have been collecting dust while waiting to be discovered.

Within an hour, I had people wanting to take those books off my hands! Note: One person wants five of the books (all the big, heavy ones) and I'm just not willing to box those and hurt myself dropping them off at the post office. I was SO excited! So here's how it works. One woman wanted this book:

I went to one of Goodreads' partner sites, BookCrossing and registered to get an ID number for my books. What's cool about this? Well, as long as the people who pick up this book see the label, go to the site and update the book's status/make a review, I'll know my book is a live and well and being enjoyed/hated by anyone anywhere in the world! I think that's kind of cool. This is the next step:

I put the label inside the book and cross my fingers that the next reader will follow the instructions. Then, I go back to Goodreads and print out the postage label (the person who wants the book pays for this). I didn't have an envelope big enough for the book, so I grabbed a brown paper bag , cut it up and wrapped the book. Last step: putting the label on the book.

Now, all I have to do is drop this off at the post office!

That done, I spent the rest of the morning putting Book Crossing labels in all the other books I'm ready to send off. I hope my fellow book lovers will join me in this new adventure! If you join Goodreads, please find me. Maybe we'll have some books to swap!