In my dream, books weren't shackled to shelves by jealous owners, their pages rarely seeing light. Instead, they roamed free, disseminating their contents amongst readers everywhere, treating the world as their library and all in it as their readers.
I called my dream 'readcycling', and began to create a site to promote the idea and record the movements of member books.
I did not know that the idea had already found a receptive mind and borne fruit as early as 2001.
I got a call from a very excited Zara on Saturday. She, of course, knew about my plans and called me immediately when she found a novel with a panel on the inside front cover proclaiming it a 'roaming book' and exhorting the discoverer to log the find on BookCrossing.
As satisfying as it was to be told that the books had already been freed, and to see how well BookCrossing is doing it, it was also deflating. I'd had a novel idea that excited me and looked to be an interesting challenge. Now it's back to the mundane warp and weft of life until the next mind seed germinates.
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I love that you had this idea and tried to make it happen. If I'd heard you talk about it, though, I would have been able to point you to BookCrossing earlier.
I do know how you feel... great that this is in the world, but damn, there goes my sense of achievement. Ah well.
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