I caught a book yesterday

(FutureCat slinks back into the room after a long silence. Life’s just like that sometimes.)

Yesterday a very rare occurrence happened – I actually caught a book in the wild. I of course pick up books at meetups and conventions all the time, and through various forms of controlled release, but if I can’t count the number of wild releases I’ve caught on one hand, then it doesn’t take much of the second to complete the count.

And this one is only the second that I’ve actually gone hunting for. I don’t normally bother with hunting books – they’re normally too far away, or have too vague a release location, and anyway by the time I see the release notes they’re probably long gone. But yesterday I was sitting there registering books (in an attempt to break my no-release drought), and saw a release pop up – a book had been released in Burnside Park, just around the corner from me. And from the description in the release notes, I knew exactly where it would be.

Just as I’d decided to go for a walk and see if I could spot it, lytteltonwitch arrived at the door. She’d been out for breakfast, so decided to pop in on her way home. She was up for a book hunt too, so I quickly slapped labels in a few of the books I’d registered (on the principle that if we couldn’t find the book, I’d leave one in its place anyway), lytteltonwitch grabbed a few books from her car, and we wandered down to the park.

It was a lovely day (is again today – finally spring has got its act together), and the park was full of people, so I didn’t think we’d have much chance of the book still being there, but when we rounded a stand of trees, I saw a plastic bag lying at the base of a power pylon, just where the release notes had said it would be. There was a moment of doubt when we thought it might just be someone’s discarded lunch, but no, there was the yellow post-it, and inside the bag, a book! At Your Convenience.

I left a book in its place (Blade of Fortriu by Juliet Marlillier), and then we wandered the park a bit more, releasing the rest of our books (King’s Oak by Anne Rivers Siddons in an oak tree, and Mr Standfast by John Buchan on a rock).

So, my releasing drought is officially broken, and so, it seems, is my blogging one. Let’s see how long it lasts…

And now, an update on all the catches I’ve had in the month or two since I last posted:

Age Defying Lifestyle by Denyse Saunders (Once again, the most unlikely book is the one that gets caught)
Animal Farm by George Orwell (Found its way from Christchurch to Hanmer)
Samsara by Alexandra Jones (Perhaps caught twice? It’s hard to tell for sure from the journal entries)
Being a Teenager: Top to Toe Grooming and Confidence by Denyse Saunders (What is it about Denyse Saunders books???)
Beloved Soldiers by C.L. Skelton (Great journal entry!)
In Pale Battalions by Robert Goddard (Another catch from our war memorial search)
The Dream Maker by Alison McLeay
Forever, My Lady by Jen Holling
Malibu by Pat Booth
Remember by Barbara Taylor Bradford (A very quick catch!)
Matters of the Heart by Charlotte Vale Allen (Caught and then re-released in the UK)
Maiden Voyage by Graham Masterton (Caught and re-released by the same person as Matters of the Heart, but this one was caught again!)
A Plague of Angels by Sheri S Tepper
Let’s Investigate: Mapping the Night Sky (Maybe on its way to Germany?)
The Liberators by Nathan Elliott
Judy and the Martian by Penelope Lively
Almost Night by Ann Prospero
The Ivy Tree by Mary Stewart (Nearly a year between catch and journal entry)
A Gift from Artemis by Willow Tickell
The Moscow Club by Joseph Finder (Two catches, and now in Sydney)
In a Marmalade Saloon by Patrick O’Connor (Another one with two catches)
Stories and Texts for Nothing by Samuel Beckett (Another very quick catch)
The Hahnemann Sequela by Harold King (Caught and re-released)
Beloved by Toni Morrison (Caught by someone who thinks my screen-name is “fishy” :-))
The Group by Mary McCarthy (A second-generation catch, now in Australia)
The Running Mate by Joe Klein
After the Fall by Arthur Miller

Now if that list doesn’t inspire me to get the rest of these books registered and released, what will?