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Wednesday, April 18, 2001 BookCrossing Encourages Readers to Release Books Into the Wild Humankind Systems, Inc. announced the launch of BookCrossing.com, an unusuual book tracking website for booklovers. Adventurous BookCrossers release their books "into the wild" on airplanes, trains, park benches, bus terminals... wherever the interplay of distance and chance can make things interesting. "I guess you could say it's the Karma of literature," explains BookCrossing.com's co-founder, Ron Allen Hornbaker. "Releasing your books 'into the wild' and tracking their progress and the lives they touch is just more fascinating, and more fulfilling, than hoarding them on a shelf somewhere." "We teach BookCrossers, our members, the '3 Rs' of BookCrossing: to Read, Register, and Release their books for others to enjoy," says Hornbaker, also President and CTO of BookCrossing.com's parent company, Humankind Systems. "Sharing books with your friends and neighbors is a natural instinct... what we've done is created a tracking database so that you can see where your books are, and read the journal entries along the way." BookCrossers register a book by going to the website and entering the ISBN number of the book, and getting a unique BCID (BookCrossing ID number) that is then written inside the cover (or on a bookmark) along with the website address. BookCrossing bookmarks can also be printed from the website. "It's really quite simple," Hornbaker continues. "And even if you don't want to give your books away, you can register them at BookCrossing.com to have your very own free, virtual bookshelf, complete with your personal reviews, to show the world the books you've read." Adventurous BookCrossers release their books "into the wild" on airplanes, trains, park benches, bus terminals... wherever the interplay of distance and chance can make things interesting. More conservative BookCrossers give their books to friends, relatives, or charities, and enjoy reading the resulting journal entries from person to person. "Just think!" exclaims Hornbaker. "Books are forever... people don't throw them away. A hundred years from now, your great-great-grandchild might open a book, find a website address with a BookCrossing ID number, and go read a journal entry that you wrote. How cool is that?". Related Links: · BookCrossing.com · Humankind Systems, Inc. Click here to return to the homepage of The Write NewsTM Click here to subscribe to our free weekly email newsletter. www.writenews.com Copyright © 1997-2011 by Writers Write, Inc. All Rights Reserved.