My being part of Bookcrossing is bit of a contradiction. Actually a lot. I love my books and normally am quite jealous of them. There are some books that for whatever reason I grow very attached to and actually suffer if I have to give away. However, I do love hunting for books and have discovered that releasing books into the wild gives me a great buzz. When one is caught, it really makes my day!
My way to deal with these conflicting emotions is as follows:

1)I will always pass on all the books that come into my possession through bookcrossing as I firmly believe that they belong to the world. The same goes for anything on my bookshelf that is tagged 'available'.

2) On a good day, I might release some of my own books that I feel I can part with but only when I am good and ready.

3)Anything on my shelf that is tagged as 'permanent collection' I am not willing to give away, so don't ask. I can make exceptions, (again, on a good day!), only for people living in my area that I know will return them.

I don't think it is fair to release only books that I don't want to keep because I didn't like them. I know somebody else might enjoy them more than I did but I still feel like I am cheating and defeating one of the main purposes of bookcrossing which is to promote culture and encourage more and more people to read. As a result, now when I read a book that I really like, I find myself in the situation of having to buy a second copy in order to keep one and release the other. Which does wonders for the author but not as good for my pockets. Bizarre I know, but I am etrangeemilie after all.











-I'm a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it-