Last week I tried out the Book Crossing website - it's where you "release" books into the wild - as in, you leave a book somewhere like a tram or train or park seat, along with a sticker or book plate to explain what Book Crossing is. Whoever picks up the book is asked to log in to the site, using the code number you have put in the book, and say what they are going to do with it - where they leave it after they have read it. It's like the "pass the parcel" game we used to play at parties as kids. Except everyone who finds the book gets a free reading experience, they get to participate in logging in and tracking the book, and they get to release it again.
It's a lot of fun. I released a copy of "Farm Kid" because it is a kid's book that has just been shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Awards and no one seems to know about it. Like many poetry books, it languishes behind fiction and I wanted to try new ways of getting it out to readers. We shall see where it goes!
I have done no writing for 5 days - have been at a beach resort helping 2 friends to celebrate 50th birthdays. Came home and started a poem, but also have been rethinking my middle grade novel and playing with possibilities on how to cut the first half of the book back by 25% and get the pace moving more.
I have also been reading Elizabeth George's new novel and loving it. Nearly 600 pages and I only have about 20 pages to go. It is so fabulous to be deep into a great book, and enjoying it so much that you don't want it to end. I want to take some of her descriptions of places and use them in my classes for exercises and examples.
Ten stars to EG!