Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The #Freebook Experiment

Last week, when I was in Chicago's Midway airport, I finally remembered to test an idea that I'd had long ago--which is very similar to Book Crossing--to leave a book in a crowded place with a note that it was free for whomever was interested in reading it.

How that book ended up in Midway is quite the story; a journey in itself. I bought "Lisey's Story" by Stephen King in Kansas City and took it to San Diego about a month ago. I didn't finish it on my first trip there (in fact, I had a hard time getting into it), so it sat at a friends' house until my return when, again, I didn't finish it. So, it made the trek with me to Alaska's Glacier Bay and during my incredible stay there I forced my way through it to the end (read my review of Lisey's Story here). I had intended to drop it in the airport in Anchorage, but I was so distracted by the people and the noise that I forgot. So, the book traveled with me all the way back to Chicago. I'm sure it was as tired of being in my backpack as I was tired of lugging it around in there.

In the note that I left, I asked that the finder of the book please drop me an email or a tweet (follow me @zamees). Yesterday, I got an email that thanked me for the book and that it had made it's way to San Antonio, Texas. She also promised to leave it somewhere!

It kinda made my day!

BTW, I've been using the #freebook hashtag on Twitter if you're interested in following.

5 comments:

Kristi Smith said...

So would have you left the book if it would have been a book you really enjoyed? ;)

Like this idea!

Robert Zamees said...

Sometimes I have books in mind for people and give them away. Sometimes I have books that I know I will want to reread. And other times, like this, it would have gathered dust until the next time I cleaned house and donated it to Goodwill.

If you try it, let me know how it goes!

MoxieMamaKC said...

As a huge Stephen King fan, I too was kind of disappointed with Lisey's Story, but it was nowhere near as horrible as Cell was for me. It was like the poor man's version of The Stand and not done very well...

Amy Shropshire said...

Nice gesture! Kind of reminds me of a project a woman is doing in Chicago leaving envelopes with $2 in them and asking people to write her and let her know what they did with it. It's just a small way to make someone's day.

http://twodollarproject.blogspot.com/2009/06/power-of-two.html

Robert Zamees said...

I read "Cell," but it must have been last year since I don't see it on my list. I keep getting it mixed up with that darn Shyamalan movie about the trees, though.

I liked "Cell" better than "Lisey."