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Feeling Cold and Sassy

Adventures in Literary Magnetism
by Melydia
November 17, 2008
There are currently seven copies of Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns on my BookCrossing bookshelf. I have a bit of a strange history with this book. When I received my first copy in 2005 as a birthday present from theory19, I'd never even heard of it. In time I read it and found the story reasonably enjoyable, if not especially memorable. I brought this copy to a local meet (back before we'd coined our current moniker), and zaraibelle grabbed it for release in Hunt Valley, Maryland. I figured that was the last I'd hear of Cold Sassy Tree. The end, right? Not quite.

Fast forward to April of this year. Another copy, this one registered by authorauthor, made its way into the leftovers I took home from the BookCrossing booth at the International Day of the Book in Kensington, Maryland. I released it a couple months later in Zanesville, Ohio.

In late August, BC in DC took a field trip to The Book Thing in Baltimore, Maryland, where I picked up two copies of Cold Sassy Tree. I often pick up books I've already read so I can include a meaningful journal entry before releasing it. Coincidentally, both of these copies were released on the same day: one at a gas station in Centreville, Virginia, and the other in a tree in Washington, DC, as part of our mass release for the National Book Festival. Both were caught, and one resulted in a new member. (Welcome, xacabeo!)

I am a member of Swap-Bot, a trading site where I often participate in book swaps. These are usually blind trades - that is, you do not know what book you will be receiving. At the end of September, my swap partner looked at my interests and decided I might enjoy reading (you guessed it!) Cold Sassy Tree. After registering it, I sent the novel off to another Swap-Bot member.

Less than three weeks later, my fellow BC in DC members took another trip to the Book Thing. I couldn't join them, but the following Thursday we all met up to wish bon voyage to Skyring, ResQgeek, crrcookie, and lilgrovers the night before their journey to the Charleston UnConvention. When I arrived, I learned that crrcookie and SqueakyChu had been thinking of me during their trip, and had picked up another two copies of Cold Sassy Tree "to replace the ones that were caught." Very funny, guys.

Those two copies have since been released, both at gas stations. One was journaled the very same day. Of the seven copies, five were wild released, and three have been caught (so far). For a novel I never would have even heard of were it not for BookCrossing, it sure has followed me around.

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