Bookcrossers discussion

I use "bookcrossing" for books that are on my BookCrossing shelf, but I wondered what others might use.

I wonder if there is a single tag we could use that might show what the numbers of BookCrossed books are also on GoodReads.

I use "bookcrossing" too, both for books that I have registered and released and for those that I get from rings and rays, etc.

Seems to me I saw someone using "travelling", too. There are 1475 books on GoodReads tagged with "bookcrossing". :)

Any particular way you were thinking of using this information?

Nah-- but I am naturally curious to see what the overlap between the two sites is, particularly with the discussion going on here:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1...

I'm not a book trader, but as I do release a lot of books, I find it interesting to track them in many different ways.

I imagine at some point it might be of some interest/use to someone to actually know how complementary sites overlap in use.

I wonder what otis was referring to... trying to get some of BookCrossing's business!! Starting a bookmooch thing of his own!! who knows.

It's late, so I'm off to bed. see you around.

Funny, until I read this thread it never occurred to me to make a bookcrossing shelf for my GoodReads books. I have several shelves -- female authors, sci-fi, 2008, 2009, gave this book as a gift, etc. Maybe I don't put bookcrossing as a shelf because all of my books eventually get BC'd, even the ones that go to paperbackswap.com. I guess there are always a few I just keep, but not that many. And there are a spare handful of library books...

I went back and read the reference thread, and don't know what to make of the comment from Otis. It was pretty nebulous, so I guess we'll wait and see.

A large number of my books get BookCrossed, but we also have a huge personal family library that aren't registered. Plus I read a lot from the library and share books with non-BC friends. That's actually why I started on at GoodReads -- as a way of keeping up with my reviews and books I've read but that aren't BookCrossing books. And I have such a huge BC shelf, which includes multiple copies of books or books I've been given to cross and have never/will never read. So not all my books on GoodReads are BC books. Does that make sense?

It seems a little hard for me to think about GoodReads and Bookcrossing intersecting. I mean, In Bookcrossing, each book is unique, so there is some meaning to the question of how many copies of "Angeles Ashes" have been released. But there is really only 1 "Angeles Ashes" book that was published (different bindings maybe) so GoodReads should have one record for it with lots of reviews and people who have it on their shelves, but it doesn't correspond to physical copies necessarily. I don't know...

It's not hard at all for me to see how they intersect. The physical, unique book may have its own BCID on BookCrossing and its own journey, but it shares a common review with other copies of the same book. That review can be housed on GoodReads while multiple copies of the book can roam the world from your BC shelf.

So, if I originally read Angela's Ashes as a library book and now have one copy of Angela's Ashes in my permanent collection here at home and 6 copies I have acquired that were released via BookCrossing, they all share the same review (though the individual BC books may also have notes as to how that copy came into my hot little hands.) My GoodReads tags (from my list of tags) might include:
bookcrossing (for the 6 copies travelling)
home library (for the one on our shelves here)
read,
biography-autobiography-or-memoir,
good-but-made-me-sad,
great-title,
i-heard-about-it-on-npr

I might even choose to include my "borrowed" tag, since my original copy of the book was, indeed, borrowed.

I see what you mean. How about books you register and release but never read? Would you bother adding them to GoodReads?

No, I don't add books I have never read to Good Reads. I try and only add books I ha e reviewed , or at least have a memory of what the book was about or what I thought/felt about the book. I dislike having books on my personal list/ shelf that are read but not commented on. My personal quirk. :)

The only bc-related tag I use here is for books I never would have read if I hadn't gotten them through BookCrossing. That tag is "bookcrossed read".

I've been using bookcrossing-books, but I think I'll revise that to read just bookcrossing.

Bookczuk wrote: "I use "bookcrossing" for books that are on my BookCrossing shelf, but I wondered what others might use.

I wonder if there is a single tag we could use that might show what the numbers of BookCro..."

I (recently) added the shelves 'bookcrossing-caught' and 'bookcrossing-released'. To keep the difference clear (for my own administration). And when the books I register here have a BCID-number, I add it under the 'I won a copy', which is indeed a bit an odd feeling most of the time, since these books are made for travelling and do not often 'disappear' into someone's personal collection.

I think GoodReads can show you when other people have the same book on their bookshelf. Can it show you who else has a bookshelf by the same name?

Oh boy, I never thought to have bookcrossing shelves in my goodreads shelves, but of course it makes sense. I like Boekenwurm's designations of 'bookcrossing-caught' and 'bookcrossing-released' but it will be a chore to go back through all my books and put the right ones on the bookcrossing shelves.

Imagine going back and putting in BCIDs under the "I own a copy of this book" spot where Goodreads thinks BCIDs should be listed. I don't OWN Bookcrossing books. I'm merely their host when they stay with me.

Yeah, I don't keep them either, just a temporary host, as you said. I love using GoodReads as my ongoing reminder of what I want to read, as my keeper of the log of what I read and when I read it, and what I thought of it. Bookcrossing could probably incorporate this functionality, but maybe won't and is not its primary function. I did finally create a bookshelf in GoodReads for books I read on BC ray/ring.

Bookczuk wrote: "Imagine going back and putting in BCIDs under the "I own a copy of this book" spot where Goodreads thinks BCIDs should be listed. I don't OWN Bookcrossing books. I'm merely their host when they s..."

But aren't BCIDs supposed to be secret, unless you actually have caught the book?

The first 3 digits are "secret", only seen to those who have had the book. But the last set of numbers, after the hyphen is public, which is why people can give links to books. It's those last numbers that are used in the html to point to the correct book.

Chana wrote: "Oh boy, I never thought to have bookcrossing shelves in my goodreads shelves, but of course it makes sense. I like Boekenwurm's designations of 'bookcrossing-caught' and 'bookcrossing-released' bu..."

*smile* That would be quite a lot of work!! I accidentily found the "I own a copy", because when I used it before, the answer would be, that I should be in the US to offer my books for a swap / trade. These two features were taken apart appearantly, because I can 'own' books now without offering them for a swap. I am recently active on BookCrossing again and use the registration here to organise my shelf and keep track of what I read, want to read and have read, because the BC shelf is less easy to organise.

Not sure where to ask this question so be patient with me: I would love to swap books on goodreads but I do register all my books with bookcrossing. Does any one have experience with swapping books on goodreads that have been registered with bookcrossing? Or are the two ideas at cross-purposes do you think?

Goodreads has a place for the BCID on the book that specifically relates to swapping, so it's acceptable. But just like any trading site, I'd recommend you make sure the receiving person knows it's a bookcrossing book and doesn't try to remove the label. And as long as you understand that the recipient may choose not to journal, then you're okay! The two ideas are not at cross purposes.

So you mean that the goodreads book swap site has a place to put the BCID for bookcrossing, like on their "release notes" kind of page? Yes, I thought that I would contact any potential recipient to make sure that they are OK with it being a bookcrossing book and labeled as such and won't remove the label. And I wouldn't expect a JE, although I would prefer it. So this is done by other bookcrossers/goodreaders, I appreciate your help in clarifying this : )

If you click on your book's review you''ll see the option that says "I own this book". In order to swap a book, you have to indicate that you own it (ie as opposed to it being a library book or borrowed from a friend, etc.) I believe the actual wording is "I own a copy of this book" followed by a check box in front of the phrase "I own a copy" If you click that little box, a whole set of info drops down, to add the book to book swap. It gives the book's condition etc, and included BCID. The funny thing is (or so I'm told) that once you swap a book, the BCID disappears from your GR book. I don't know if it follows the book or not, so that if an non BCer has the book the BCID appears on their shelf, next.

Hope that helps. I don't do swaps or trades for the most part, but they seem pretty organized. I like to wild release.

I see, that is all very interesting. I never have clicked on the "own a copy" option so I was unaware of where all this info for book swap was. Thanks for clarifying! I often send my books to other bookcrossers although I try to wild release a couple a month. I am a good candidate for sending books to goodreaders also, I just wanted to make sure that registering them with bookcrossing and labeling them as such wouldn't be a problem. And I see that I will have to assess that person by person. Thanks for all the info Bookczuk.

I just divide all my bc and non-bc books into subjects ie paranormal romance, horror, thriller etc. I'm basically just using my goodreads shelves as a guide to what I've read and what I thought of it.

I haven't been bothering to fill in BCID's on the 'I own a copy' bit either as I couldn't be bothered pulling all the books off the shelf to copy out numbers! Anyway the books will all be moving on to new homes shortly I hope...

My tag is "bookcrossing-rings-rays".

I don't have any bookcrossing tags as such, though I do use the tag "SIY14" or whatever for the Set It Yourself Reading Challenge on the Book Talk forum. I'm not sure what I would use that info for over here, since I can pull up my BookCrossing bookshelf up in another tab if I need to. I don't have any tags related to where I got the book from or anything like that. I have used the BCID field on a few books, but I was kind of nervous about it and didn't include the first three digits.

I'm not doing much bookcrossing right now (I'm kind of "on strike" until they have the mess sorted out--hopefully soon because I miss it) and I don't think I'll ever swap books via Goodreads (even if it becomes available for non-US residents).

I dont tag the bc books, they are part of other tags. I dont read only bc books and not all books I read are bc. That is no criteria for me to follow on GR