American invasion
No, it’s not a political rant 🙂 The first overseas guests for the NZ Bookcrossing Convention have just arrived – KimKerry and ds3233, two bookcrossers from Arizona, flew in to Christchurch today. So of course we had to arrange a meetup (if only to make boreal and rarsberry jealous because we got to meet them first ;-)). It was a bit of a last minute arrangement, so a few of the regulars couldn’t make it, but Alithia, lytteltonwitch, and I were there, and we had a really nice time. KimKerry and ds3233 were obviously exhausted from the long flight and then a long day of trying to cram in as much sightseeing as possible (they’re off to the West Coast tomorrow), but were so excited to be here and to be meeting New Zealand Bookcrossers for the first time. There was the usual meetup book trading, of course. I picked up The Quiet Game by Greg Iles and the wonderfully titled Trachtenberg Speed System of Basic Mathematics, and passed on Life’s Little Ironies by Thomas Hardy and Amsterdam by Ian McEwan, and gave Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis De Bernieres to the waitress when she asked about all the books piled on the table. And when we left, I left A Dubious Legacy by Mary Wesley behind on the dividing wall behind our table.
Oh, and I released another book this morning: MrPloppy had a dentist’s appointment, so I went along with him and released To Hell in a Handbasket by Richard Littlejohn in the waiting room (it seemed an appropriate title for such a scary place!). As we were sitting in the waiting room, we were amusing ourselves by coming up with other titles that would be appropriate for releasing at the dentist (like Jaws or The Marathon Man) so as it looks like MrPloppy’s going to have to go back for another couple of appointments over the next few months, I might have to have a trawl of the secondhand shops soon and see what I can find…