Book-crossing
Book-crossing has come to Singapore! Yay! I first knew about bookcrossing when I was visiting Australia and chanced across a book that had been left on a train. I didn’t take it away then as I was too scared. The whole concept was alien to me because I am a book-hoarder. When I want to read a book I usually buy it and when I have finished it, it sits on my bookshelf as testimony that it has been read. But the motto of bookcrossing is “Books need to be freed!” And as space becomes a premium in my small flat and my bookshelves become laden with books, I have begun to think that perhaps it is better that I ‘freed’ more books to be read by others.
So what is bookcrossing? It essentially involves people ‘releasing’ books, that is, leaving books that they have read, in public places where others can find them. When you ‘catch’ a book you go online to http://www.bookcrossing.com/ and register as having found the book. The person who has released the book would have also journalled about the book and you can add your comments and talk to others who have read the book on online forums. So it can be really fun, because you never know what book you will find, where or when. So when a book ‘crosses’ you, you can choose to read it, review it and then release it again or if you aren’t attracted to the book, you can just leave it where it is for someone else to pick up.
So now, bookcrossing has come to Singapore. According to the media hype, we are the first place where bookcrossing has been implemented in a whole country. Ha ha – of course we would be. We are so small! Though I am excited that bookcrossing has come to Singapore, I am really disappointed that a lot of the fun and excitement of catching a book is lost because it has been implemented in such an officious way.
Unlike other countries, in Singapore you can only find books at designated hotspots at Cafe Cartel, Cafe Galilee & SMRT taxis. This just ruins the spirit of book crossing. The great thing about bookcrossing is not knowing when or where you will find a book or even what book you will find. It is the serendipity of the thing that is exciting! If I have to go to designated hotspots to find a book I might as well go to a library. It's the same experience & I will have a wider choice!
I find it really strange that the CEO of NLB said in the ST interview that he hopes that bookcrossing might get people who don't come to the library to pick up a book and read it. If NLB really believed that, then they shouldn't be institutionalising the adventure of bookcrossing. Worse, instead of allowing bookcrossers to leave the book any place they choose, those who want to free their books have to do it at the customer service centres of libraries. This means of course, that a person who wants to share his book has to go all the way to a library and drop it off. This is ridiculous & I predict this is going to be the main reason for a slow demise of bookcrossing in Singapore because people are just not going to make the special trip to the library just to release a book.
Bookcrossing means leaving a book in places where people linger & where other people will pick it up - on a park bench, on a cafe table, on a bus, at a clinic. Why should I take my book, go to my nearest library, probably queue to get to the customer service person, then go online and register the release? Where is the fun in that?
So what is bookcrossing? It essentially involves people ‘releasing’ books, that is, leaving books that they have read, in public places where others can find them. When you ‘catch’ a book you go online to http://www.bookcrossing.com/ and register as having found the book. The person who has released the book would have also journalled about the book and you can add your comments and talk to others who have read the book on online forums. So it can be really fun, because you never know what book you will find, where or when. So when a book ‘crosses’ you, you can choose to read it, review it and then release it again or if you aren’t attracted to the book, you can just leave it where it is for someone else to pick up.
So now, bookcrossing has come to Singapore. According to the media hype, we are the first place where bookcrossing has been implemented in a whole country. Ha ha – of course we would be. We are so small! Though I am excited that bookcrossing has come to Singapore, I am really disappointed that a lot of the fun and excitement of catching a book is lost because it has been implemented in such an officious way.
Unlike other countries, in Singapore you can only find books at designated hotspots at Cafe Cartel, Cafe Galilee & SMRT taxis. This just ruins the spirit of book crossing. The great thing about bookcrossing is not knowing when or where you will find a book or even what book you will find. It is the serendipity of the thing that is exciting! If I have to go to designated hotspots to find a book I might as well go to a library. It's the same experience & I will have a wider choice!
I find it really strange that the CEO of NLB said in the ST interview that he hopes that bookcrossing might get people who don't come to the library to pick up a book and read it. If NLB really believed that, then they shouldn't be institutionalising the adventure of bookcrossing. Worse, instead of allowing bookcrossers to leave the book any place they choose, those who want to free their books have to do it at the customer service centres of libraries. This means of course, that a person who wants to share his book has to go all the way to a library and drop it off. This is ridiculous & I predict this is going to be the main reason for a slow demise of bookcrossing in Singapore because people are just not going to make the special trip to the library just to release a book.
Bookcrossing means leaving a book in places where people linger & where other people will pick it up - on a park bench, on a cafe table, on a bus, at a clinic. Why should I take my book, go to my nearest library, probably queue to get to the customer service person, then go online and register the release? Where is the fun in that?
This is just so typical of our society. Fear of litter, fear of 'unsavoury' books getting circulated, fear of losing control. Excited about stuff happening in other countries, desperate to bring it to Singapore but so very afraid to let things happen naturally. It is as if someone was sent to see how other cities get their buzz, they find a quirky phenomenon and then they think that just by bringing that isolated act into Singapore they would somehow re-create the same experience without understanding that it is about something more than that. There are thousands of books being crossed all over the world without librarians being appointed to monitor it, there are people going online and writing about books and freeing them just because they want to share their love of books. Why must we regulate bookcrossing so closely? It's sad.
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