Bookcrossers discussion

I was a little startled to find that GoodReads has a spot for recording BCIDs of books. It's under the "I own a copy of this book" link.

This seems a weird place for me, because even if I have bought the book, once it has a BCID in it, it is transient and I am merely a custodian. I would never claim a BookCrossing book as "mine".

Is anyone else a little puzzled by this concept? Can one "own" a BookCrossing book? And then what happens when you release it, or if it's one you caught. Can more than one person "own" it? What happens if you have more than one copy of a book on BookCrossing? Can you list more than one BCID?

As a result, I basically don't use that tool, which is a real shame, because I'd love to record and link my BookCrossing books with my Goodreads list.

Guess I'll ask this in the big questions forum, too, but wanted to see what BookCrossers said.

I wouldn't have even thought to look under "I own this book" to enter a BCID. I mean, I guess it makes sense in terms of "I have a copy of this book with which I am free to do as I please" (as opposed to, say, a library book) but wouldn't one then uncheck "I own this book" once they'd released the book?

That's my thought, too. We're custodians, hosts, temporary stops on a book's travels. Not owners, unless it's part of the PC.

I answered/queried in the other thread and then saw your thread here. I too was puzzled about that.

Maybe we could think of it as "I temporarily owned a copy of this book"...

I would never have thought to record the BCID there, but it is an interesting thought. I guess I've always looked at that space and thought, "who cares?". It says nothing about how I liked the book. Do people use that space to show what's in their permanent collection, or to say that they have a book to swap?

I've started using it for the books I have up to swap. It reminds me to ask the receiver (if they're not a BookCrosser) to journal that they've received it, so the past BCrs know it's safe.

That's a good idea. I'm so disorganized, have so many books all over the house. But the ones I have formally decided to swap are in one cabinet and are posted on paperbackswap.com. If I didn't segregate them like that I'd really be sunk!

WOW!! I didn't even know that existed! Thanks for pointing it out...I never check that box...even though I do own a copy.

I don't think it is that surprising. Even on Amazon, I check "I own it" even if I know longer have a copy in my possession.

It would be nice if I could upload the BCID for all the books I have on goodreads already.

It's so buried away and with language that is, to my mind, against the BookCrossing philosophy -- I would use it if it were in the general book information like it is on LibraryThing, not buried under "own". Apparently, if you swap a book via GoodReads swapper thingy, the "own" and BCID information disappear when you no longer have the book.

I was putting the BCID in, but have decided not to now. I just know I won't remember to uncheck the own box once I've passed in on.

Actually, that's not a problem. Once you've released the book, GoodReads automatically takes it off your Owned Shelves

Which only becomes a problem if you want to keep track of your books' BCIDs on GoodReads as well as BookCrossing.

Yvensong wrote: "Actually, that's not a problem. Once you've released the book, GoodReads automatically takes it off your Owned Shelves"

Surely that only applies if you release them through goodreads, which I don't

Ah, no...but if you release it, then you can come back and go to your owned books list (I cull it pretty regularly) and 'remove' it from your list. It'll give you the option to check off that you gave it away, etc. I've used that feature not only for BC books, but others that I've loaned out (they have that option, too), sold, or gave away because I decided I wasn't going to keep it after all.

Thanks Yven, but what I was saying is that I'd forgot to 'remove it', lol

I am wondering, is there a problem with the BCID number?
I register books on GR after I added them to my shelve on BC, check the box "I own a copy", add all information about status of the book, the place I bought it, the date I bought it and put the BCID in the box. Then I click on 'save'.
When I get back to my book list however, the book is not listed as a book I own. When I check out the book's BCID, it is not kept after saving the book data. BUT... when I try to enter it again with the same book, I get the notification that the unique registration number is already taken...
Does anyone that uses the BCID here too have any problem with this too? Or am I doing something wrong? HELP??

Maybe post in one of the other groups for help? I don't use it because of the limitations and wording of "I own this book", so can't help you.

That's strange, the problem with saving the BCID #. I wonder, if you are successful in saving it in GR, can other people see it, or only the person who put it in? If other people can see it, then they can make a journal entry without actually coming into contact with the book...so I hope it is a private field.

I've been told that the first 3 digits (the secret ones) are only visible to you.

I had the same problem as Boekenwurm, while trying to save a new book, I got an error message saying that the BC # had been taken already. The only way I could save the book was to delete the BC #. I think I will just put a link to the book on BC in the review box from now on.

Carlissa wrote: "I had the same problem as Boekenwurm, while trying to save a new book, I got an error message saying that the BC # had been taken already. The only way I could save the book was to delete the BC #..."

I think that is a very good idea :-) I'm going to put a link in the book review too (if I remember...).

I place my BCID in the private comments area - just in case. It keeps it off the public view and is still a great reference

Good idea. But I'd still like to be able to see somehow if your review of a book and my review of a book were actually the same physical copy read. (ie either via ring or trade or wild catch.) But I'm a bit obsessed. :)

When you fill in this field, are you supposed to write BCID --- - ------- or just the numbers, or the URL for the JE or...?

It's not very logical if it won't let more than one person fill in the BC #, as ringbooks etc. may be recorded by many people. Or am I missing something?

Bookguide wrote: "When you fill in this field, are you supposed to write BCID --- - ------- or just the numbers, or the URL for the JE or...?

It's not very logical if it won't let more than one person fill in the B..."

I just put in the last bunch of numbers, but not the first 3 numbers. I have had problems with saving a book that I was entering because it said that the BCID already existed; I couldn't save the book until I removed the BCID. In that case, I put the full link in either the review box or personal comments.

I finally visit BookCrossing's updated site this week, as I decided to post some newer items to my BookMooch inventory. I like the improvements and look forward to more releases in the future.

I have a question to pose, and I apologize if this has been asked (and answered) before, but:

I've marked several of these books as "I own a copy" here at GoodReads so that I could include the information for the BCID in the appropriate field. What is the procedure once you've released or swapped a book? If I uncheck "I own a copy," what happens to the data associated with that flag (like where I got the book, when I got it, and the BCID)?

Thanks,

Jon

So wait, when I release the book in bookcrossing I should go and edit the book in goodreads to "remove it" to release it? :-/
It's not really a logical way, it took a lot of wondering how it's supposed to be done... after I didn't find it anywhere in a book's details, I remembered this thread. So, for a book I released, I tried ths "remove". Fine. Now it's removed?! I didn't want to remove the book, just to release it in BC and indicate it's no longer in my bookshelf. At all. #$%%@
So, what I think I'll do from now on (as until now): just paste the public journal entry to the review field somewhere, without adding it to 'own' unless it is to be swapped here or is PC.

Bookczuk wrote: "Good idea. But I'd still like to be able to see somehow if your review of a book and my review of a book were actually the same physical copy read. (ie either via ring or trade or wild catch.) B..."


True - but you'd see that on the bookcrossing site - right? That said somewhere to link the url would be handy.

for the following comments I don't lst the BCID in that field unless I'm swapping it here. I find that eliminates the problems your describing.

I think a formal suggestion of having the BCID/ linking url field for having had the book in the regular area, and then repeating it in the swap area (where it can go away from you without a hitch - each field performing a different function) would be a better option for those goodreads members who also utilize bookcrossing.

Hopefully my notion there is clear.

Opinions?

So I just was looking at the books I have listed on swap, and the one that I entered the last digits of the BCID, on the swap page there is a link to take you to see the journal entries. I thought that was kind of cool -- I think I will just add it on books that either I own and are in my PC, or I am going to swap on here -- as I would forget to come here and take them off "books I own" list. :-)

Carlissa wrote: "Bookguide wrote: "When you fill in this field, are you supposed to write BCID --- - ------- or just the numbers, or the URL for the JE or...?

It's not very logical if it won't let more than one pe..."

I haven't tried this feature in Goodreads myself, but you should never put the entire BCID anywhere except in the book itself. With the full BCID anyone could go write journal entries in your book's BC log without ever touching the book. If there is a completely private area, as Kiri said, you could put the entire BCID there.

Judy, the first part of the BCID is not shown for others than you if you use the above described "books I own" method to add it. So you will end up then seeing the bookcrossing.com/journal/xxxxxxx instead of the whole BCID.

The main reason I use this feature is for books I am adding to bookswap. Someone requesting the book can see if it has been registered on bookcrossing or not and then decide if they want to request it. I do try to update the 'books I own' list at least once a month or so to remove any books I have released through BC.

If a book on my wishlist has multiple copies available, I like to check to see if any of them are BC books and if so, that's the one I'll request. It's basically a controlled release. :)

Did the BCID just go away? I usually fill it in but I just registered a book and it didn't give me the option to include the BCID. Wondering if maybe it was because the book I registered was an ebook but that never stopped me before. Always hopeful that someday some of the ebooks will be tradeable...or at least I can lend them to someone. But I've notice Goodreads wouldn't let me mark an ebook as tradeable even if I'm allowed to "lend it" like some of my barnes and noble ebooks are lendable. Very frustrating