Book Review - All the world’s a library

In Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, a trivial and self-absorbed society outlaws books and “Book People” must memorize them to keep them alive. Now we keep Bradbury’s book alive through its fulfilled prophesy: the shallow pursuits of reality TV clog our culture, our attention spans are shrinking and quality literature takes up increasingly less space on bookstore shelves.

I can’t help but think of the Book People when I discover BookCrossing, an underground literary movement whose goal is to turn the whole world into a library.

Every day, nearly 400 people join BookCrossing. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe — but mostly in America — some 250,000 people have signed up since www.BookCrossing.com was founded three years ago.

Logging on to the website, I accidentally brush my cursor past a tiny mascot of a yellow book with arms and legs, prompting the book to break into a jog and exclaim, “Hey, that tickles!” A slogan — “Because books have feelings too!” — perches at the top of the screen.

As posted on the site, the “three R’s” of BookCrossing are this: You “read” a book, “register” it online and “release” it “into the wild.” Books can be left on park benches or in doctors’ waiting rooms. It doesn’t matter. You just hope that whoever finds them will log onto the site and pass them along when they’re done reading them.

The site features lots of testimonials from enthusiastic BookCrossers: “What a lovely way to make this world more neighborly,” says “StellaG.” “This site can be a great benefit to literacy,” says “dallasjay.” “I’ve been as excited as a kid since dropping by. This adds a level of intrigue to my reading,” says “Treknut.”

These BookCrossers revel in the idea that they are celebrating reading, improving literacy and connecting with other people. But who do they give books to? What kinds of books do they release? Do they engage in debate over the world’s greatest authors?

I click on the “Go Hunting” section to find out where books have been released in the Atlanta area. For all the talk of improving literacy, BookCrossers rarely leave books where people actually need them. In Atlanta, the majority of books are released in coffee shops in relatively affluent neighborhoods such as Midtown, Virginia-Highland and the Emory area. There’s certainly no problem with literacy in these areas.

In an era when self-help books, how-to manuals, junk science and beach literature dominate the best-seller lists, you’d think BookCrossers would release more intellectually challenging books if they prefer to increase literacy among people just like themselves. But a random sample of recently released books in Atlanta includes The Firm by John Grisham, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff with Your Family by Richard Carlson and Uncle John’s Indispensable Guide to the Year 2000 by Bathroom Readers’ Institute.

I ring up BookCrossing founder Ron Hornbaker to get his take on his fellow BookCrossers’ choice in reading material.

“These are the books people are reading and they’re on the best-seller lists for a reason,” says Hornbaker. “So yeah, when you look at our most registered books, you’ll see a lot of the best sellers, but then you’ll also see books in there like Fahrenheit 451 and Catcher in the Rye, and they’ll be quite a bit higher than what their sales look like.”

Perhaps the online forums provide some intellectual insights into literature’s loftier offerings. I enter BookCrossing’s labyrinthine community forum, which has 16 discussion groups. “Chit-Chat” is the busiest.

“What is on your desk/computer area?” provokes the most deliberation, with BookCrossers filing unflinchingly detailed reports of Pepperidge Farm cookies, cat-of-the-day calendars and Orange Glow wood cleaners. A thwarted online romance between two BookCrossers also sparks contentious debate. So does “American Idol.”

Hmm. I go to the “Books” forum, confident that at least here I will find conversations about books. There are some, but I have to plow through postings by people who want to play games, host quizzes and compile lists. “I’m feeling silly tonight. Let’s start a game shall we?” suggests “MoonDancerBlue” before naming a book beginning with “A” and asking people to take turns through the alphabet.

After a while, I begin to wonder if BookCrossing is really about books. Online BookCrossers seem desperate to talk about anything. Nearly 3,000 BookCrossers live in Georgia, so I decide to meet some local BookCrossers face-to-face.

When I arrive at Java Monkey coffee shop in Decatur, I have no problem identifying the BookCrossers. Five women and two men are gathered around a table piled with paperbacks. They are all strangers — most of them have never met another BookCrosser before — but they are already chattering amiably about where to release books.

“Melisande,” a lively 24-year-old from Atlanta, suggests leaving books in Blockbuster stores next to the films they inspired. “KF-in-Georgia,” a sci-fi reader from Marietta, informs everyone that she will be releasing hundreds of books at a library fundraiser.

I expect them to eventually talk about books — recommend obscure books we might not have heard of or offer opinions on recently published books — but this doesn’t seem to occur to them.

“So what kind of books do you release?” I ask.

“Anything,” says KF-in-Georgia. She goes to yard sales specifically to pick up books to release, and often doesn’t even read the books she passes on. Everyone agrees there is no need to be confined to passing on special books.

“There are books about all kinds of things,” Melisande says. “You just have to have faith that someone will like the book you release.”

Why are they are so passionate about BookCrossing?

“It’s a cause,” says Melisande. “Intellectual karma.”

Heads nod.

The most prolific BookCrosser of the group, “PhiloMum” from Decatur, who has released 185 books, admits, “It’s my way of getting the world to think like me.”

They all have a vague notion of BookCrossing as fun self-expression or a social service rather than as a way of elaborating on their ideas about books. BookCrossing seems to promote reading as a whimsical game, a capricious gimmick. Everyone is so obsessed with the “thrill” of releasing that they fail to convey the satisfaction of reading books that are genuinely insightful.

I leave the coffee shop wondering if Ray Bradbury’s faith in books was misplaced. He envisaged reading as a way of thinking independently and breaking away from trivial society. BookCrossing shows that even books can be co-opted into shallow pursuits and that we have to be discerning if we want reading to matter.

I was going to end my BookCrossing journey by releasing a book into the wild, but now I understand it would make no sense. Anonymously leaving a book on a park bench would be just another empty gesture. I’m happy exchanging books with friends.