English: A whole lotta books in my personal library (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Some people give them to charity or sell them. Others are more neighborly and social in their approach to weeding their books. In Manila, Nanie Guanlao set up a free library in front of his house thinking his books would disappear. Turns out his collection grew as people borrowed, returned, and brought their own books to add. His library/ book club has now been in use for twelve years.

The official BookCrossing logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In America (and some other countries) people have taken to building mini-libraries in front of their homes. They rely on the honor system for sharing their good reads. In fact, a non-profit organization entitled Little Free Library has been created to encourage people to add one in their neighborhood. So far they’ve been a big success.

The official BookCrossing logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Another way to share books and weed your shelves is practicing “bxing” (BookCrossing). Put an official BookCrossing sticker on the book, or put the book in a BookCrossing plastic bag, and leave if for others to find. If you register your book it’s possible to track who finds the book and where it travels to if that person signs on. How fun is that? You can also simply leave a book somewhere for someone to discover and enjoy. I’ve done this and there is great satisfaction in it.

Book released onto a bench at a bus stop in Sydney. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Now matter how you do it, getting books out there in the world is a wonderful way to share the joy of reading.

English: Example of a book “released” by a bookcrosser. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Related articles

• Little Free Library Connects Neighbors, Promotes Front Yard Reading (wibw.com)
• The Little Free Library in Bangalore (prathambooks.org)
• Book Swapping; Passing on Well-Loved Words to a Stranger (theurbn.com)

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