19-04-12

To mark World Book Day on April 23, 71 art centres and museums are to take part in a BookCrossing experience this Friday in which 5,000-plus books will be set free. Sixty-four Spanish and 7 international museums have signed up for the experience, including a number of Basque museums, such as Artium in Vitoria, the San Telmo museum in San Sebastián and the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum.

For the fourth consecutive year, the initiative is designed to put more than 5,000 books into public circulation, so that the people who find the copies can read and enjoy them before setting the books free again somewhere else in the world. All books freed in this way are labelled, and contain the instructions finders and readers need to take part in the campaign and appear on the www.bookcrossing-spain.com website, where participants can announce where they will set free the copies they have found and read. The idea is join forces with museum libraries in their bid to stimulate reading and the spread of knowledge.

Since its international beginnings back in 2001, BookCrossing has been defined as a global book club, with just three rules: read, record and set free. The books are set free in public places and at www.bookcrossing–spain.com anyone interested can see where each book has been. In previous experiences, freed books have been located in places as far apart as Paris, New York, Rome and El Cairo. BookCrossing means people can share books for free, track them and discover who else has read them and where. Anyone can take part by picking up books or putting their own books into circulation.
All freed books are labelled with the worldwide BookCrossing symbol and carry a brief text identifying them, plus instructions on how to take part through www.bookcrossing-spain.com. A sticker is also included for each reader to write his name and the place where he found the book.

On April 20 booklovers everywhere can become part of this increasingly popular worldwide book reading and sharing chain.

The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum joins BookCrossing

Joining the latest BookCrossing event on Friday 20 April marking World Book Day, the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum is to set free some twenty or so books in Bilbao