STEPHEN FRY

im also embarresd to ask what is a bookcrosser? :-//

check out http://www.bookcrossing.com

The idea is to "set [books] free to travel the world and find new readers.
Leave it on a park bench, at a coffee shop, at a hotel on vacation. Share it with a friend or tuck it onto a bookshelf at the gym -- anywhere it might find a new reader! What happens next is up to fate, and we never know where our books might travel next. Track the book's journey around the world as it is passed on from person to person."

Before a book is set free it is registered and receives a tag with an ID. The finder is asked to report on the website where he has found it.

It sounds like a fantastic idea, but I'd hate to part with any of my flock of books! I love them all too dearly!!

My ex found one of those in an Ottakers in the coffee area and wouldn't let me read it! He couldn't decide where to leave it when he'd done with it and ended up passing it on to this author who was signing books in a different Ottakers. I think bookcrossers is a really cool idea.

My ex found one of those in an Ottakers in the coffee area and wouldn't let me read it!

Why? That's the whole idea behind it, to get people to read books they'd probably never have read.
I set free a few books myself but these days I don't have any books I would want to part from. If we want to make a change we should let loose as many Fry or Wodehouse (or...) books as possible Unfortunately, I don't have any spare copies.

That's an idea. I'd set loose my second copy of Paperweight except it's got the first article missing.

I don't know why he wouldn't let me read it. He was always doing things like that, like he had Oldboy on dvd and wouldn't let me watch it or borrow it.

thats a really great idea, i bet though if i did that it would end up getting thrown away.

lol hanny your books arent that filthy im sure (srry couldnt resist!)

that sounds like a great idea it reminds me of throwing a message in a bottle out to sea, i did that once when i was younger but since i live beside the sea i might so it again.

I know that here in Hannover bookcrossers meet regularly (because I always get an invitation) - next time perhaps I'll go there and see what's going on.
Are there other bookcrossing-meetings, perhaps in Bavaria, Soupy?

There are regular meet-ups in Munich and several other places in Bavaria, but I've never been to any. I'm not a very active member these days. After all, the annoying habit of many members of lurking near the place where you're about to leave a book (as announced on the website) in order to catch it strikes me as inconsistent with the bookcrossing idea: that it is pure chance and not calculation or a "military operation" that a book finds a new owner and gets sent around the world. Therefore I stopped announcing the release of my books, only registered them afterwards as being released, but sure enough, I got angry comments every time I did so. Some German members seem to be either exceptionally greedy or dumb, or both, I don't care. I hope you've had better experiences, Maren.