Profile Image

pjlareau

Age 82
Joined Sunday, June 1, 2003
Statistics
4 weeks all time
books registered 0 50,350
released in the wild 0 40,328
controlled releases 0 3,506
releases caught 0 2,781
controlled releases caught 0 494
books found 0 628
tell-a-friend referrals 0 99
new member referrals 0 245
forum posts 0 334
Extended Profile
I am a retired computer information analyst and public librarian. If you'd like to know more about me, take a look at my Wikipedia Editor Personal Page and/or my FaceBook Profile.

Our family's love of books is truly genetic. One of my earliest memories was the weekly family library visit (in about 1948), which continued until I left home at age 20. Our daughter and granddaughter are also BXers. Between our home and our daughter's home, we probably harbor (imprison??) over 3,000 books, most waiting to be read!!

I can't imagine life without access to books. That is why the idea of releasing books into the wild is so attractive to me. There are too many people who have never thought about (or cannot afford to) avail themselves of the pleasure of books. One person can help a handful, but a worldwide movement such as BookCrossing can reach millions of the bibliographically challenged! ;-)))

I have been asked by several people about my BXing techniques. I get most of my books from Goodwill on their weekly Senior Discount Sales, garage and rummage sales. As I have suggested to several BXers, "You'd be surprised the unbelievable deals (and outright donations) you can get if your heart is pure, your cause is just ... and you arrive at a sale about 15 minutes before they have to haul their left-overs back up to the attic!"

As far as the way I release books, from 2003 until 2013, I tended to leave them in very public places, benches in parks, bus shelters, coffee shops, and laundromats full of bored people. I aimed for places where there are a lot of folks milling about, but leave the books where no individual is currently sitting, so they are technically free!

Since 2013, I have concentrated on releasing and trading many books in the over 400 Little Free Libraries in the Twin Cities ... they're not BX competitors, I like to think of them as Travel Agents for our wandering bibliographic friends. I also spend time cleaning up and repairing books that I find there that need "bibliomedical attention", fixing them and returning them to other LFL's for a change of scene. The turnover rate for books in those LFL's is quite high, and contrary to the places I used to release most often, LFL's can be goldmines for "hunters" ... just make sure you replace any you take with books of equal interest.

For more information about Little Free Libraries located near you, see Google's LFL Directory: www.google.com/---/viewer?...

I am also very active on PaperBackSwap.com (PBS), where I am known as ChanurCousin. I love to trade books, but I only do it there, as there are a number of folks on BookCrossing that don't like to see trading here. Also, at the present time, I have my AVL books in cartons awaiting release, and finding individual titles is highly unlikely (except for the ones I have listed on PBS, which I keep in a separate place).

Because of the high cost of shipping, I don't trade or RABCK books outside the US and Canada.

Are you sure you want to delete this item? It cannot be undone.