This edition of TechnoBabble highlights my new favorite online community – BookCrossing.com. What I love most about this community is how it exists electronically and as a part of the physical world. It also perfectly blends my passion for books and reading with my passion for geography and thinking spatially.

BookCrossing.com is both a treasure hunt and a global book swap for avid readers. It is similar to other treasure hunt communities such as Phototag.org – a disposable camera project, and WheresGeorge.com – a currency tracker. All of these sites allow participants to “release” items into the physical world, track their progress through online bulletins and catch other items.

To begin BookCrossing, you first create a simple user profile. Then select a book you own that you are no longer reading and register it on the website to receive its unique BCID number. Next you print out BookCrossing.com’s free label templates to stick on the inside or outside cover of your book; BookCrossing.com also sells limited edition art labels and “release kits” in its online store. Next, you release your book “into the wild”! Be sure to post a journal entry whenever you release or catch a book so that others can see what happens to their favorite books.

You can also track books from Crossing Zones, places where community members regularly catch and release books. The most common Crossing Zone places are coffee shops, laundromats and bus or train stations; they can be any kind of location and users can register their own. The image below shows recently released books at A Fine Grind coffee shop in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Earlier today, I caught my first BookCrossing book and will be releasing it "into the wild" very soon. Check out my journal entry at http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/4792054. Happy hunting!