Sometimes it doesn't work
After my exam yesterday (which wasn’t too horrible, but I don’t think I did as well as I could have), I decided to have a nice relaxing afternoon (sensibly, I’d taken the whole day off work), so I walked to a cafe and had a very nice lunch, then went to Jelly Park, where I’d released those books for Lytteltonwitch on Sunday. Unfortunately, as I was wandering round in search of a nice spot to sit and read for a while, I spotted one of the books. It had been taken out of its nice protective plastic bag, and thrown into a garden. I found the bag (and an explanatory flyer that Lytteltonwitch had tucked inside) a short distance away. Obviously somebody had found it, was interested enough to open the bag and have a look, but then decided they weren’t interested after all so chucked it away 🙁 Luckily, there hasn’t been any rain lately, and the book wasn’t actually damaged by its adventure, so I retrieved it from the garden and took it home. I’ll release it again somewhere else, and hopefully have better luck next time.
Lest this tale put anyone off the idea of Bookcrossing, I have to point out that this is a pretty rare event. I’ve released nearly 800 books, and this is the first one I’ve seen maltreated. And I’ve only heard one other report of book maltreatment from any of the other Christchurch Bookcrossers. Occasionally there’s a sad story on the forums, but when you consider that there’s more than 1.5 million books registered with Bookcrossing.com, and only a handful of bad reports, the risk of a book being maltreated seems to be very small. I think there’s something special about books that makes even non-readers generally treat them with a bit of respect.
Currently reading: The Meaning of It All by Richard Feynman (the last of the current batch of bookring books).