Low-impact living: I released my first novel a few weeks ago, amid great excitement. Now, when I say "release", I don't actually mean I wrote and published it. All I did was set free a book I had read and enjoyed, leaving it in a public place for someone to find, and - I hope - read and enjoy too.
But before letting it go, I registered it with www.bookcrossing.com, a worldwide confederation of readers and releasers in over 200 countries, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. The website was set up in April 2001 by American computer consultant Ron Hornbaker, and has since garnered half a million members, who have registered more than three million books.
Ireland alone has 1,700 bookcrossers. (The word "bookcrossing", incidentally, is in the most recent edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary.) Each book has a unique registration number, so that if you find a book "in the wild", you can go onto the website to discover who released it and what they thought of it. Then, you can add your thoughts also, and - if you feel inspired by the idea of this global library where millions of books are constantly on the move - you can join too, and send your own books on their adventures. Membership costs nothing, as the website is supported by donations, merchandise sales and advertisements.
There are easier ways of recycling books, but none that is quite so fun, or so randomly altruistic. Releasing a book is exciting, a bit like sending a message in a bottle - you wonder who will find it and whether they will get as great a kick out of finding it as you have out of setting it free.
Books can be left just about anywhere, although airports and aircraft are out of bounds for security reasons. Recommended places include trains, bus shelters, cafes, park benches, phone booths, car-parks, hospitals, and just about anywhere else people have to wait. Books may also be hung from trees (in ziplock bags) or deposited on the laps of statues. One rather literal member left Night of the Living Dead in a graveyard.
Most of the time, you'll never find out who picked up your book, as the "catch" rate recorded on the website is about 10 per cent. On the other hand, some books are documented travelling across the earth and back, goodwill ambassadors for a roaming worldwide library.