BookCrossing: In Pale Battalions

Horseshoes up my butt. Yesterday's wild release number 423 - Robert Goddard's In Pale Battalions at a bus stop in downtown Vancouver - received a same-day journal entry catch. Consecutive days with catches - I could get used to this!

My catch rate now sits at 12.05%.

Yesterday's journal entry:

I found this book at a bus stop on Davie and Burrard, and I have begun reading it, not sure where I plan to leave it.

Here's a link to In Pale Battalions on BookCrossing.

BookCrossing: Waking Raphael

On Friday I wild released three books in three different locations. As I usually do after releasing several books at once, I kept checking my BookCrossing profile to see if my releases caught number had increased. C'mon c'mon, don't be 73, don't be 73. BookCrossing does email notifications, of course, but I only get end-of-day summaries and sometimes I'm just a little too impatient.

Sunday morning I checked and, sure enough, my releases caught stood at 74. Yes! I checked my recent releases to see which one it was and was surprised to find that none of my most recent three had received journal entries. So I kept scrolling down the page and it wasn't until I reached the last book on the first page (book 50!) that I saw a "set by [username]" that didn't ring a bell. Waking Raphael by Leslie Forbes was released by yours truly last June during Car-Free Day on Commercial Drive. I released it right onto the street itself, on the yellow centre line. My first thought was that the journal entry was made by a new member, but no - s/he's been a member since last February.

It's appropriate that the book was the 50th on the page, as this was the 50th catch of my wild releases. Today I performed wild release number 423, and some quick calculations shows that as of this sentence being written my wild release catch rate is 11.82%. The aforementioned number for my releases caught (74) includes all my wild releases, but also all the books that I have made journal entries on that subsequently received journal entries by others - books that were mailed to other BookCrossers or given to friends, for example.

Here's the journal entry for Waking Raphael:

I picked this up on Commercial Drive in Vancouver, right where it was left. I have had it since then and haven't had the chance to read it. After I have read it, I will release it.

Waking Raphael on BookCrossing.

love through concern and interference

And she was right. It wasn't that her mother didn't love her, it's just that Janice could only express love through concern and interference, and you can't really apply that to someone who's doing fine.

-- Between the Bridge and the River by Craig Ferguson

BookCrossing: Different Seasons

I've been busy and haven't done much BookCrossing lately. I have a whole lot of books that need releasing but they first need labelling and the past few months I've been too work busy to have time, or energy. And, hey - I became a dad on Thursday! One might think that would decrease my spare time even more, but I'm on pat leave for a few months and plan on sending a lot of books out into the wild during that time. There are also a lot of books on my to-be-read shelves.

Last Saturday I released Different Seasons at Metrotown, and author Stephen King got a positive review by the book's catcher (a new member!) in Wednesday's journal entry:

i have not read the book yet, but i admire with the reputation of Stephen king. fubulous! THANK YOU SO MUCN!

Here's a link to Different Seasons on BookCrossing.

BookCrossing: Lord of the Flies

Some released books go a long time before getting a journal entry. Some of my released books are still waiting for a journal entry many years later.

Then there are the books that get a journal entry the very same day of release. I had one of those on Thursday! I released William Golding's Lord of the Flies at Manitoba and Broadway in a Georgia Straight box, though that's not where the book was recorded as found:

Found at the St. Vincent de Paul thrift shop on Main Street, plan to read and release back into the wild!

Here's a link to Lord of the Flies on BookCrossing.

BookCrossing: Blood Royal

Once upon a time, a boy named jblue(afterglow) released a book. It happened during the afternoon of September twenty-seventh in the year two thousand and eight. Said book was Blood Royal by Harold Robbins and it was released at the nine o'clock gun on the east side of the park. A week and a half later, a journal entry hit the boy's email. Seems the book was caught by a new member from Calgary, Alberta, with the username red-dawn. Here's the entry:

I found the book in Stanley Park at the 9 o'clock gun. I hummed and hawed about taking it, because I'm not a Harold Robbins fan. I am, however, an avid reader, so I couldn't resist! Too bad the book was SO horrible! I will be leaving it somewhere, not sure yet.

Here's a link to Blood Royal on BookCrossing. The book has since seen another journal entry by another new member - TallTimber in Okotoks, Alberta. Thanks Albertans!

BookCrossing: Life of Pi

After getting my mama to join BookCrossing and wild release some books, she was having no luck getting journal entries. I really wanted her to get one so that she could see that it does indeed happen and that it's a thrill when it does. Years ago, I borrowed and read her copy of Life of Pi by Yann Martel. I loved it and have been trying to get Biscotti to read it. She's got a few books in the queue, so I figured this was a great book to release via my mother's BookCrossing account. I registered it under her username, then journaled with my username, then released it on June 23 2008 in Pacific Spirit Park, where, coincidentally, we bumped into my mama pre-release.

Two days ago, a catch! Here's the entry that hit my inbox - and my mama's I hope (she's currently busy in New Zealand):

Found the book on the trail as mentioned above and took it home. Took me a while to get started and into the book.
Type of book that gets better and better after you've let it digest for a while...
I found the first section quite dry even though I'm an Indiaphile but the second section was quite absorbing... and then zingo came the third section. I spent a week thinking about the ending!
Problem with releasing the book back into the wild is finding the right place... but I think I saw a novel (heh heh) place yesterday.

Life of Pi on BookCrossing. It's already been rereleased on Granville Island!

BookCrossing: Invasion and Sword of the Demon

Of late, my BookCrossing luck has been going buck wild. For the longest time I would rarely get a journalled catch and my catch percentage was between nine and ten percent. Now the catches won't stop coming! On Monday I got a short entry on a book I released - Invasion by Robin Cook - on August third in Stanley Park:

found the book and will release

Invasion on BookCrossing.

Then today an entry for Sword of the Demon by Richard A. Lupoff, which I released on Friday:

I was out for dinner on Main St with a friend when she reached into a newspaper box to grab a Georgia Strait. She grabbed a newspaper out from under a paperback and then closed the door. We started to walk away when I said, "Wait..." and returned to the box. "Maybe it's a BookCrossing book!" It was!
This is the first ever that I have caught. My friend hadn't heard of BookCrossing so I explained it all to her and she was intrigued. I'm excited to re-release it somewhere in my hometown.

Sword of the Demon on BookCrossing.

As of this sentence being written, I have released four hundred and two books. Forty-five have been journalled as caught, for a percentage of eleven point one nine four zero two nine eight five zero...

with today in my eyes

Douglas Coupland writes good books. Fiction and non-fiction alike, I get completely entranced when reading his work. The very first book of his I read, some ten years ago now, was Polaroids from the Dead, a mix of fiction and non-fiction. For a year or so after reading it a passage would cross my mind and I would go back and read that section again. Today, many years since last cracking open the book's cover, a small portion of the book came to me. It took mere seconds to find it when I got home:

I made notes in my notebook - casual voices and things we had heard and seen over the past day that made more sense than other things, and this is what I wrote in my book:

• I could happily die right now with nothing but today in my eyes. (A line written by Truman Capote I had read in a book the night before.)
  

...
For a souvenir I gave the German reporter an old white T-shirt that I asked him to put on. Then, with a thick Sharpie permanent black felt-tip marker I wrote in it the corrected wording of the Truman Capote quote I had written incorrectly earlier in my note pad. I wrote:

As for me
I could leave the world
with today
in my eyes.
-t.c.

BookCrossing: Windmills of the Gods and Simmer Down

Two books I released in Pacific Spirit Park almost a month apart both checked in yesterday.

Windmills of the Gods I released on July 15th (Happy Anniversary Biscotti!). Here's the touching anonymous journal entry for that one:

I came across this book as I was walking through the park one evening trying to calm my thoughts down. I was to be at the hospital very early in the morning for a long test. I had forgotten to go to the library and get something to read as the test requires sitting quietly for 3 hours waiting... Such a blessing to see a book - just what I needed. Junk fiction, no investment, didn't matter if I couldn't concentrate. Thanks for the gift! I'll release as soon as I can remember to take it out of the house with me.

Here's a link to Windmills of the Gods on BookCrossing.

Simmer Down I first released on June 15th inside a Westender box. Two days later I was in the area, checked the box, and the book was still there. So I took it and rereleased it on June 20th. Here's the journal entry made by new bookcrosser monitorman:

We found this book while walking our dog towards Spanish Banks. It wasn't on the bench, but nearby, on the gate where two trails cross. Very intrigued by the little post-it telling me it wasn't "lost".
I'm going to read it, and release it soon.

Here's a link to Simmer Down on BookCrossing.

BookCrossing: Caroline Masters (plus two others!)

Well well well, three BookCrossing catches in two days! Two came in yesterday, one anonymously and one with a new member:

• Blue-jeaned Prince -- My friends and I found this gem on top of a newspaper box on Dunbar. We proceeded to read it aloud to each other in the park. It was an exciting, sensual tale of love found where it was least expected.
• The Gathering of the Winds -- I found this book in Pacific Spirit Park on the Council Trail. It provided my friends and me with much amusement after the fireworks at English Bay. Many thanks!

And then one came in yesterday. On Tuesday morning I left Vancouver with Biscotti and my mom and a couple of my registered books to release. Caroline Masters, by Richard North Patterson, was released in Seattle's Pioneer Square, just inside the entrance to the Underground Tour building. On Friday, the following journal entry was made by a new BookCrossing member from Germany:

I found this book on July 23 08 in the building of the "Underground Tour" when I was visiting seattle :-)
-07/23/08: the book arrived Vancouver...welcome back ;-P

Here's a link to Caroline Masters on BookCrossing.

BookCrossing: Affliction

For many months I have had a large box full of books that need to be labeled and released. With the start of summer and some decent weather (now gone missing), I've stepped up my efforts and have released sixteen books in the past four weeks. On Wednesday, Biscotti and I took the dogs to low tide at Spanish Banks, where I left Fay Weldon's Affliction on a park bench. Last night, I received an email with this new journal entry made by new member bbtea of Calgary, Alberta:

found it on a bench by the beach near UBC. was definitely surprised. I had not experienced anything like that. already half-way done the book. interesting read so far. planning to take it to california this summer and drop it there. whoever picks it up, keep the chain going!

Here's a link to Affliction on BookCrossing.

Ulysses by James Joyce

It's been a long time since reading a novel - reading anything - was this hard. I wasn't enjoying the read, but giving up was not an option. I must finish. I have to finish. In the end, I couldn't finish. My bookmark is on page 47 of 704 and I haven't touched the book in several weeks; I can't even bring myself to look in its direction, which is hard as it's been collecting dust on my bedside table! Over two years ago, in February of 2006, I PM'd an American BookCrosser and offered to mail this novel in their direction when I was finished with it. Since I'm now finally finished with it (or is it finished with me?), I'll PM them again to see if they're still interested. Time to choose some lighter reading off Mt. TBR for the start of summer.

Ulysses on BookCrossing.

A coughball of laughter

- Mr Dedalus!

Running after me. No more letters, I hope.

- Just one moment.

- Yes, sir, Stephen said, turning back at the gate.

Mr Deasy halted, breathing hard and swallowing his breath.

- I just wanted to say, he said. Ireland, they say, has the honour of being the only country which never persecuted the jews. Do you know that? No. And do you know why?

He frowned sternly on the bright air.

- Why, sir? Stephen asked, beginning to smile.

- Because she never let them in, Mr Deasy said solemnly.

A coughball of laughter leaped from his throat dragging after it a rattling chain of phlegm. He turned back quickly, coughing, laughing, his lifted arms waving to the air.

- She never let them in, he cried again through his laughter as he stamped on gaitered feet over the gravel of the path. That's why.

On his wise shoulders through the checkerwork of leaves the sun flung spangles, dancing coins.

-- Ulysses by James Joyce