My Suggestions for Visual Bookshelf

I'd rather you brought something to the picnic instead of moving the picnic... you know what I mean? In other words, I have this huge, fantastic list of friends (real and virtual) that have all identified themselves as being in a particular location, so let's take better advantage of it.

Here are the suggestions that I sent to LivingSocial for their VirtualBookshelf application on Facebook:

• Create a radio button for "Would like to give it away."
• Allow me to see those friends in my area that own a book that's in my "Want to read" list and vice versa.
• If none of my friends want to read a book I'm willing to give away, then allow me to post it to a bulletin board in the area or suggest people I don't know that are local and have that book in their "Want to read" list.
• Allow me to rank my "Want to read" list so that it's easy for me to grab the books at the top of my list when I want to order online or when I'm in the bookstore.

Several of you have suggested BookCrossing, but I have a hard time getting into it... mostly because there don't seem to be many users in the Kansas City area; no critical mass. And, as I said in the beginning, why move the picnic?

Travels w/ #freebook1, Stop 3!

A few weeks ago, I left a book with a note inside of it at Midway airport in Chicago. I felt great when the person that picked it up sent me an email to say that she was thankful for the gift and that the book had made its way to San Antonio, TX. [Read the full story here.] She also said that she'd be sure to leave the book for someone else when she was finished reading it.

LO AND BEHOLD, I got another email this week saying that she'd read it and left it in Reagan National airport in Washington, D.C. And, she'd left it with my same note inside!

AWESOME!

I live close to about 87 coffee shops, so I've thought about leaving books around Kansas City... but I've wondered if too local would equate to less correspondence. Oh, I am prone to over-thinking, in case you didn't know. I'm way overdue to purge the library, so I should have enough books to leave them in coffee shops, airports and anywhere else that seems cool (likely not a bookstore, however).

I've looked at the book trading services and they always come back to the same thing... an eye for an eye, put one in and get one out... I just want to give my book away and there's no service that helps me to do that and make a connection with someone that's thankful to receive them. I've lobbied LivingSocial to help me to match my "own it & finished reading it" list with local friends that "want to read" the same book, but that connection thread doesn't yet exist (and doesn't help them earn affiliate dollars on Amazon).

If anyone else tries this, please be sure to let me know what happens!