Back in business!

I'm back, miss me?

So I haven't spent much time on Bookcrossing lately, both because of time constraints, and because I primarily use a mobile phone and the Bookcrossing site is not mobile optimized. Frustrating.  So lately, I have been primarily reading books on my Kindle, and all new book purchases are digital. That doesn't change the fact that I still have hundreds of paper books. One thing I've been working towards is replacing my paper collection with digital books. I thought I had been pulling and releasing books as I went along, but alas, today I discovered 20 plus books that I had missed! What to do? Why, release them, of course.  So I thought it would be great tonvisit this blog as I work through the releases, and start spending more time on Bookcrossing!

BOOK REVIEW: Dark Screams: Volume Two

Another stellar collection in this series! I enjoyed the first volume, and found myself liking the stories in the second volume even more! 

We start out with "The Deep End" by Robert R. McCammon. To read a horror short by him was great, especially with recent news of his return to the genre! This was a chilling story about a father seeking revenge against a an unknown nemesis. Norman Prentiss' "Interval" was a great modern take on a common theme: beings who hang around to feed off of sorrow and loss. Next up was "If These Walls Could Talk" by Shawntelle Madison. The author is new to me, and I'm curious to read more of her work now, this story was a chilling tale of stalker madness! My favorite story in this collection was "The Night Hider" by Graham Masterton. Masterton never disappoints! In this tale, we have a haunted wardrobe linked to C.S. Lewis, the evil within consumed him and inspired Narnia, and how a woman decades later works with her lover to defeat the evil within! Finally, we have "Whatever" by Richard Christian Matheson: my least favorite of the bunch. I found the story tedious and until the very end, had no clue what was going on or where he was going. 

All in all, this is a fantastic collection, and I cannot wait to read the third volume in the series!

I originally read this about 5 years ago, and loved it then just as much as I do now!  I rarely revisit books, but this was well worth it!  This book gave the Zombie genre a much needed boost which started a huge tidal wave of new books and movies that have not slowed down yet! 

Keene steps outside of the typical mindless flesh eating zombie shtick, and takes it beyond! I love his Lovecraftian influence in his work, and it is very much present in this book. Scientists are experimenting with anti-matter and end up opening a portal to another world, one inhabited by demonic beings who were expelled from our world long ago, and have been waiting for the perfect opportunity to return. They inhabit the bodies of the dead, be it human or animal, and are working together under the leadership of Ob, to take over the planet! Our central story revolves around Jim, who is on a mission to reach his son Danny several states away. With a great B+ movie feel and a cliffhanger that will make you rush out to buy the sequel, The Rising is a treat for horror fans the world over!

BOOK REVIEW: The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

This classic was amazing!  We take for granted the all too familiar doomsday scenario of every zombie story, novel, movie, and tv show out there today:  Chaos ensues, survivors band together and hunker down, taking refuge in abandoned homes, stores, farms, eventually fortifying their surroundings from the enemies.  Common theme right?  How common was this when Wyndham wrote Triffids in 1951?  Not very.  This was definitely a trailblazer, aside from the fact that it was a great story of survival, surviving a plant species with a killer instinct!  Not sure why it took me so long to finally read this book, but I'm sure glad I spent the time I did with it!

BOOK REVIEW: Chainfire by Terry Goodkind

I have started to struggle with this series. Mostly with Goodkind's heavy handed Tea Party like rhetoric. It has been getting increasingly heavier throughout the series, to the point that I have wondered if I can continue. So I was pleasantly surprised with Chainfire in that there was a lot more storytelling than rhetoric. My hope is that we get back to the storytelling as the series goes on. This was a great story, and of course, gave us one hell of a cliffhanger!

BOOK REVIEW: Upon A Midnight Clear: Queer Christmas Tales, edited by Greg Herren

This was a fun collection of gay themed Christmas stories. The cover is misleading in that it brings to mind a collection of erotic stories, but these are not erotica. It is a typical short story collection in that some stories are far better than others. Overall, I enjoyed everything and am glad to have spent time with the stories.

BOOK REVIEW: Dark Screams, Volume 1edited by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar

Dark Dreams: Volume 1 edited by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar

This is one top notch collection of horror shorts! There are only 5 stories in this collection, but the editors definitely chose quality over quantity here. We start off with "Weeds" by Stephen King, a story which I had never actually read, but LOVED the short in the movie Creepshow! Next up was Kelly Armstrong's "The Price You Pay", a spooky tale about vengeance and the price you pay for having it enacted. Bill Pronzi's "Magic Eyes" was a fun, although a bit predictable tale about madness (or is it). My favorite in the bunch was "Murder in Chains" by Simon Clark, a gruesome little story that felt like an homage to Saw and perhaps a little bit of Hostel thrown in for good measure! The collection is rounded off by "The Watched" by Ramsey Campbell, which was a typical Campbell tale full of atmosphere and just the right amount of chills! I'm glad to have read this, and can't wait to read the next volume!

"This book.. I was chosen by it."

Got a GREAT journal entry yesterday for The Year of Living Biblically that was just too cool not to share here!  Released the book last week at a grocery store, and turns out this person got it yesterday!  Yet again, BC serendipity in action!

*** Note to self, be careful when releasing at this particular store, note the journal comment about how the store was going to throw the book away!

 

Viva la Bookcrossing!

2014 releases to date: 4

Total Books Released: 3256
Total Releases Journaled: 207
Catch rate:  6.38%

 

Pridefest Book Checks In

Five years ago, I led a project with the Albuquerque Bookcrossers where we ran a Bookcrossing table at Albuquerque Pridefest. We saved up books, and had some donated from Bookcrossers around the world for this event, many of which were LGBT themed.  It was a smashing success!  We gave away 173 books that day.  It was so much fun talking to book lovers all day, as well as watching the reactions of those who simply couldn't grasp the concept of us giving books away for free!

Today I had a little bit of BC serendipity (something that honestly happens to us BCers so much that, while always cool, it is not all so shocking).  I started reading a David Sedaris book that was a leftover from that very same Pridefest.  As I started reading it, I was reminiscing about all of the books we gave away, and the amazingly fun time we had that day.  Tonight, after dinner, I got an email alerting me of a journal entry on a book.  The book, A Cook's Tour: Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines, was one that was given away that day!  Great to have a book check in, as always.  Great also to have one related to this project that I had just been thinking about this morning.  Also great that it was one given to me by my dear friend Firegirl! 

Viva la Bookcrossing!
2013 Releases To Date: 82

Total Books Released: 3233
Total Releases Journaled: 206
Catch rate:  6.37%

Review of Dark Companions by Ramsey Campbell

I have been making an effort to clear out older BC books.  This is one that I originally registered 10 years ago, after joining Bookcrossing!  Now that I have read it, it can finally leave my shelves and travel!  Dark Companions

Longtime release checks in!

I have to admit to being super giddy over a recent journal entry (a "catch", as we call them) I received this week. A coy of Stephen King's Danse Macabre that I had released way back in 2004, wrote home today! Looks like it travelled about 35 or so miles over time, but it was so great to get a catch 8 1/2 years after a release!

This was a definite record for me, one I am still smiling about!

Viva la Bookcrossing!
2013 Releases To Date: 24

Total Books Released: 3175
Total Releases Journaled: 200
Catch rate:  6.29%

Challenging releases!

Another aspect of Bookcrossing that I just love, one that is completely controlled by membership and the creativity in the "challenges" is an amazingly fun thing to experience!  So what is a release challenge?  It is, in a way, a game where Bookcrossers challenge one another to release books under certain perameters:  Books with red covers, release at public events, books made into movies, etc.  An entire forum has been created at Bookcrossing for the challenges.

So, with my renewed activity in Bookcrossing, and my personal goal this year of 250 releases, I decided to participate in some challenges.  I'm taking part in the "3 Every Week Challenge", challenging people to release an average of 3 books each week:  "The Ultimate Challenge", in which you gain points based on books you read and release, and extra points if they meet the monthly theme:  the "Never Judge A Book By Its Cover Challenge", where participants are encouraged to release books whose covers fit certain weekly themes (for instance, last week was books with images of water on the cover): the "2013 Movie Release Challenge" where, you guessed it, we release books that are based on, or have been made into movies.

The real challenge here is finding books that fit into as many challenges at once as you can!  Makes for crazy thought patterns, let me tell you.  The closest I have come would be The Third Option, which fit the theme for the Ultimate Challenge as well as the Never Judge A Book Challenge!

You might think, "wow, that's a lot of books, where do you get them all?"  Good question!  Honestly, you don't have to spend a fortune to amass a large quantity of books.  Most public libraries will have big sales of used books where you can get books for fifty cents, or in some cases, massive clearance sales where you fill a paper bag for just a couple bucks!  Thrift shops often sell paperbacks fairly cheap.  Sometimes, used book stores will have sales as well.  I go to Book Worm Used books in Riverview, FL, where they have an entire back room full of clearance books... 5 books for a dollar!  Give me 30 minutes in that room, I will emerge with 15-20 books that somehow fit my upcoming releasing needs!  So for just a few bucks, I have a ton of books to set free, and I'm doing several things:  feeding my hobby thus engaging in self-care;  supporting the local economy; leaving books in random places for people to find, often brightening someone's day, hence spreading random acts of kindness and joy!


Viva la Bookcrossing!
2013 Releases To Date: 15

Total Books Released: 3166
Total Releases Journaled: 199
Catch rate:  6.28%

I did it!

Yesterday, I released book number 109 for the year.  This means, I reached my goal of passing my small number for 2011!  The book that put me over the edge was The Postman, released in a newspaper machine outside of a Winn-Dixie. 

It feels so good to be back in the releasing game (although, even when I was "out of the game" like in 2011, I still managed to release 108 books).  I have even been spending some time in the BC Forums, and have been eyeing a few release challenges.  As a matter of fact today I participated in a fun "Snap release game" and released Death Dream.  

So now, some Floridians need to get busy hopping onto Bookcrossing to leave journal entries for the books they're finding!

Viva la Bookcrossing!

Total Books Released: 3145
Total Releases Journaled: 198
Catch rate:  6.29%

Sometimes you have to just laugh

Sometimes you get great journal entries on books you release in the wild.  We've seen those from people who were having the proverbial "worst day ever" and happened upon the perfect Bookcrossing book in the unlikeliest of places.  Good stuff!  Then there are the not so nice ones that will tell us not to leave books at a certain business, or that it is stupid to do what we do, or that *gasp* the book has been destroyed!  Once in a while you get those super bizarre ones that just have you rolling on the floor, literally!

This book, Lady Of The Knight, was one of those.  It was a Harlequin Historical romance I had released in, I believe, a Target parking lot (I sure wish BC tech could finish retrieving all the missing release entries on older books).  The response of the person who caught the book was bizarre yet hillarious!

It made happiness bleed out my anus.

My nipples are still tingling. I am going to take this book to Argentina to spread the love.

Hmm... yeah, to each his or her own, I guess, huh?

Viva la Bookcrossing!

Total Books Released: 3126
Total Releases Journaled: 198
Catch rate:  6.33%

20 books to go!

This holiday weekend, I did some things I had not done in a very long time.  First off, I found a nice used book store here.  I found an entire room full of highly discounted books, and bought a small load of them for just a couple bucks!  I have pretty much stopped buying paper books since getting my Kindle last year.  These books were purchased with the sole purpose of releasing though.  When I got home, I printed up some labels (and really enjoyed going through my old folder of Bookcrossing labels, some created by friends, some by me), registered all the new books, and started a stack on a shelf that I can grab a book or two from to release each time I leave the house!  Boy, it felt good, felt like I was getting back into the swing of my old BC craze!

Today, I released five books.  By my old standards, that is like a normal day out, but considering my releases over the past year or so have been very few and far between, it felt awesome doing five in a day.  I hope the people who came across these five books today were thrilled to come across a book and bring it home to read!  If they're like myself and most of my friends, those books will be placed on a shelf with many others, and eventually, a year or more down the line, will be picked back up and read!

I released:
The Waste Lands
Kitchen
Velocity
Nebula Award Stories 17
The Ruins

Last year was my slowest full year of releasing since joining BC.  I released 108 books last year, and am not even at that point for 2012.  So my goal for the remainder of the year is to pass that 108 mark.  That means I will need to release 19 books by Dec 31... no sweat!

Viva la Bookcrossing!


Total Books Released: 3124
Total Releases Journaled: 198
Catch rate:  6.33%

A recent catch

So one thing I will be doing a lot of on this blog will be talking about releases and catches.

For those of you not in the know, a release is a book registered at Bookcrossing.com and labeled with it's own BCID (or Bookcrossing identification) number.  We Bookcrossers will often take said book and "release" it out in the world, or as we say, "in the wild".  We'll leave them on park benches, on periodical racks in entryways to restaurants, newspaper machines, bus stops, in waiting rooms, you name it!  Then, we make release notes on the website to show that the book is released, where, etc.  Eventually, the hope is that someone whose life crosses paths with the book, will take the time to go online and enter that BCID and leave a few comments about the book and where it is.  I believe the site has an average "catch" rate for wild releases of about 10 percent.  I personally sit at just under 6.5 percent.

So last Saturday, I released a copy of Blood Moon at a local library.  Left it on the pamphlet rack in the foyer so as not to have confusion with the library's books (plus, I always clearly label the outside of my books so it is obvious they are freebies).  A few days later I got a catch!  This one copied the text of my release note, and added that it was a good book... so looks like this person joined (not a requirement) the site, then read the book and left it in the same place I had. 

As any Bookcrosser can tell you, the thrill of getting that email saying your book has a journal entry (aka was caught) is immeasurable! 

Viva la Bookcrossing!

Intro

Here we go!  So, just a little intro info about me.  I'm a bookcrossing addict, have been since joining the site in 2003.  I have spent the last year busy with many other things in my life, yet I have still managed to do some releasing of books.  My activity has toned way down from where it used to be, but I have a feeling that will be changing soon enough!  On Bookcrossing, I'm listed as Jare.

This will be a blog about the ins and outs of my Bookcrossing activity, past and present.  I hope you stay a while and read what I have to say.  I hope you enjoy it.  Even more so, I hope you interact with me in the comments on this blog.  There is plenty more to come, but for now, I will leave.

Viva la Bookcrossing!