Really love this awesome feature from WordPress.com!
Here’s an excerpt:
600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 4,200 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 7 years to get that many views.
A few months back, another BookCrosser released a book at a place called Lester’s, for a Bookleggers event. The journal prompted me to immediately find out more about Bookleggers. The name is ingenious for this little sleathy pop-up library. Visitors get a free book, or more if they bring some to trade or pay $2 per book. My first reaction was, this is such a cool idea! And, being a BookCrosser, my second thought was naturally that this would be a great place to release some books.
It is a bit tricky trying to find Bookleggers, as they are “a library on the run.” Their website doesn’t post a schedule, though they announce their upcoming events on twitter.
As their last two events happened on the last Thursday of the month at Lester’s, I presumed it would be their schedule, until by chance I checked my tweets and found that they would pop up the third Thursday of October at a bar called Blackbird Ordinary. Now, my clubbing and pubbing days were long behind since I got married, and it is hard to imagine a library inside a bar. Low lights, loud music, smoke, drinks… with some trepidation I ventured out anyway with a bunch of BookCrossing books.
Despite the fact that I downplayed the bar part, and up-played the books and library (spells BORING) part, my hubby must have sniffed something amiss as he offered to go with me rather than staying home after dinner. “Hmmm… they have bouncer? What kind of place is this library thing at? It looks seedy…” commented my hubby as we passed by the place, searching for parking spot. “Well, that’s a security guard… Library has security guards too… don’t they?” Thursday night at Brickell seems to be a busy night (so I told you we haven’t gone out in a long while…) and it was hard to find parking on the street, and flat evening rates in lots were too pricey for our purpose. Turns out a blessing that my hubby came along, so he could occupy an empty space under a No Parking sign while I went into Blackbird Ordinary.
It was easy enough to spot the impressive line of shelves, filled with books.
This is an official photo posted by Bookleggers, as mine come nowhere as nice.
There was a line of little candles, which I hold up to read the book spines.
The collection is very high quality, few romances or thrillers, but more on the literary, classics, and the like. They even sort them by fiction on top and non fiction below. A lot of great books! I was determined not to take home more books than I took out, and barely keep that resolution. I was hoping to find the BC books that was released a month or two back, but I forgot the title, and it felt a bit like cheating to hunt for it. One of the organizer did remember about some BookCrossing books being dropped off in the past.
Look at the nice stuff I got:
A few of them are wishlist books for my BookCrossing friends. There is a beautiful book on wine tasting, and a book about Natural History Museum. Can’t say it’s a wishlist book as I never knew it exists, but I enjoy visiting Natural History Museum wherever I go, so this book is my great find of the night! The Qadi book is a fiction based in Beuirot and came highly recommended by one of the organizers.
When I checked out at the library, (yes this is a library… no card to fill but you don’t just walk out with an armful of books) I was kindly reminded again that I could have taken more books and I had to politely but steadfastly decline. They stamped each book with a nice Bookleggers stamp.
I had so much fun, I am already starting to save up books for my next round of Bookleggers visit! Huge kudos to the guys who started this. A total labor of love – and serious labor too, with hundreds of books to tote around, set up and take down. Seriously, if you are in South Florida, check it out and give them some support!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 4,100 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.
Okay, tally is in. I released 67 books and took home 42. Not as good as I’d like but hey it’s FEWER books!
I’d especially glad to have picked up:
A Moomin book. I only started reading them in the last couple of years. To be more accurate, I only found out that there are actually books where all those cute Japanese character goods come from. Really like the series, it’s more like grown up books with childlike illustration rather than children’s book.
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
Haven’t seen the movie, but heard great things about both the book and the movie.
Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain
His latest book
The Road to McCarthy by Pete McCarthy
A BCer had brought it all the way from Ireland.
The Cave of the Yellow Dog by Byambasuren Davaa, Lisa Reisch
It was actually a trade with Goalie. I am so glad this book comes with lots of colored pages. Couldn’t stop looking at the beautiful pictures: the charming smiles of the little girls, the breathtaking vistas of the highland and the colorful attire of the Mongolians. Thank you!
Weight: The Myth of Atlas and Heracles by Jeanette Winterson
I was delighted to find an audio CD at the book buffet, and even more so when I found out that it’s part of the Cannongate myth series.
Heather at BookCrossing has been pondering this, and here are some answers:
“Because the author wrote it to get a point across.”
-Moem
“Because somebody paged it.”
-Covert
“Because it was a free-range book.”
– ResQgeek
“Because it wanted to tell the other side of the story.”
-bookczuk
“Because it was in an Official BookCrossing Zone of course.”
– Pooker3
“Because it was part of a plot.”
-BigKat
“Because it was stapled to the chicken.”
-BigKat
I was really happy to get to see Michael Cunningham at the Miami International Book Fair. I absolutely love The Hours. I also went to Simon Winchester’s session, another one that I enjoyed tremendously, though his tale of fattening sheep on the cliff then rolling them off the hills sound somewhat dubious. It doesn’t always happen, but at both events I can feel the exchange of idea, the works of brilliant minds, and make me like the authors even more.
I forgot to bring my Winchester books along, but managed to get Cunningham to sign on his. A permanent copy of The Hours.
I also brought along an audio CD of A Home at the End of the World.
Happy BookCrossing!!
Okay… here are some of the books I have in my pile. Of course, I do not expect to read all of them. And in fact I may end up reading something not on the list…
Oranges are Not the Only Fruit (My Oldest TBR)
The Host
Doomed Queen Anne
Name Me Nobody
Answering 911
Up in the Villa
Mira, Mirror
The Fly-Truffler
Bite Me
Every Friday Night
The Art of Living
Awareness
Sometimes The Magic Works
The Accidental Explorer
So going to bed early tonight!!!
And thank you to any cheerleader who comes by for a visit!! Happy Reading to You Too! As I have to work on Saturday (couldn’t get the day off from my boss!) I won’t be very active till the afternoon.
It’s this Saturday!!
I have gathered together a large pile of books, a pile that, in all honesty, I won’t be able to finish, even if I were to read 24 hours straight without getting tired or slowing down. Just typical of me as I pack for trips, I always bring too much stuff. Some thin books to give me a sense of accomplishment, some fantasy pageturners, some being in the pile because of seniority, as the oldest TBRs on my shelf.
Unfortunately I couldn’t get the day off work, so I won’t be able to seriously start my reading till 5pm EST or so. I will read some during my lunch break, but there will be little to report then. Just want to note here for any readers who may come by during the Read-a-thon. However, just being able to participate for part of the day means a lot to me, I have been wanting to do this and the timing just didn’t work out in the past.
I’ve signed up for the Read-A-Thon!
I am so excited. This will be the first time I’m doing it. There have been talks about it on BookObsessed, but back in April the timing was bad so I couldn’t join. I am stacking up the books I plan to read on that day already. Short, easy titles… fantasy, YA… and maybe I will include a thick tome so as not to feel like I am cheating. I don’t know how much time I will dedicate to the challenge but I do plan on eating, sleeping, showering, and not totally ignoring my hubby and my pets. Or try not to. I have given him ample warning already so he would be prepared to feed himself and me as well!
Okay, I released 20 books, plus 11 books for swaps.
Picked up 19 books home, plus 8 swap books.
So, I went home with four fewer books. What an achievement!!
Azuki's Book Cafe 