photo by Sean O' Sullivan

Discovering a great story or fantastic new author is exciting. Beyond telling your friends and family about your favorite reads, why not share your literary discovery with the world?

Sites like BookCrossing encourage readers to spread their love of great books by literally sharing them. After registering as a free member on the site you then record your books which are given trackable ID numbers. You write the number in the book along with any encouragement you'd like for the finder to visit the site. Then you leave the book in a public place. Ideally whoever picks up the book will not only enjoy the book but also log onto the site and report the book's ID and perhaps leave a brief message about what they thought of it. Results are trackable on the site and you also receive email notifications when one of your books is found.

Joining a site to record a book's progress is fun and easy and allows you to interact with other readers in forums. But joining a website certainly isn't necessary if you'd like to drop off "A Carnivore's Dilemma" or perhaps "The Catcher in the Rye" on the bus or in a park. If your goal is simply to share, you'll doubtlessly find a kindred reader out there. So whether you decide to include your email address inside the book cover or leave the gift entirely anonymous, book sharing is a 'novel' way of spreading your love of words and ideas and perhaps inspiring others to do the same.