Weekly Book Travel Plans #4
Welcome to Weekly Book Travel Plans #4, where I track which books are leaving my house, arriving at my house, and heading off into the wild blogger book swap network. If this is your first time here, the short version is: a few of us bloggers swap and pass books around the country (and occasionally beyond) in a loose informal rotation. Books travel, get read, get passed on. It is one of my favorite traditions.
Books Leaving This Week
Three books are heading out the door this week.
- A contemporary romance I loved but already own in audio. It is going to a fellow blogger who has been waiting on a library hold for months. Pre-loved with my notes in the margins (which she said she wants, sweet woman).
- A cozy mystery I tried but did not click with. It is heading to a cozy mystery devotee who I know will love it more than I did. The book deserves the right reader.
- A nonfiction title from a publisher copy. It made the rounds at a couple of bloggers’ houses already. Time to send it on to the next stop in the rotation.
Books Arriving This Week
Two books are landing on my doorstep.
- A historical romance my friend in Oregon swears by. She enclosed a long handwritten note with the dog-ears she made for me. (Yes, my swap circle dog-ears with intent. We are unhinged. We love each other.)
- A literary novel that has traveled through three states already. The bookplate inside has names of three previous readers, each with a note. I am the fourth. I cannot wait to add my own annotation when I send it on.
Books Currently On the Road
There are three books I shipped in past weeks that I am tracking through their travels.
- A romance backlist title I sent to a blogger in New England, who tells me she finished it and is sending it to a blogger in the Midwest. Tracking link or no tracking link, I love hearing the blow-by-blow.
- A debut audiobook companion I sent to a blogger who wanted to listen and read together. She is about to mail it onward.
- A signed copy I will probably never get back, and that is fine. Some books are meant to keep wandering.
Why I Love Book Travel
There is something about a book that has been read by people you love that just feels different when you open it. The notes in the margins, the bookmark left behind, the receipts and ticket stubs that fall out, the smell of someone else’s house. A new book is a clean slate. A traveled book is a conversation.
The other thing I love is how a traveled book extends the conversation around it. I read a book, I send it to a friend, we talk about it. She sends it on, she talks about it with the next reader. By the time a well-traveled book lands somewhere permanent, four or five of us have shared in it.
Want to Join the Network?
If you are a book blogger and you want to start sending and receiving books in this kind of swap, leave a comment. We are always happy to fold in new readers. The rules are: be kind to the books, write in them only with consent, and pass them on when you are done.
See you next week with Travel Plans #5.