Oh how I love books, let me count the ways…well maybe not. This is after all only a short blog. What I want to tell you about is bookcrossing.com, a website and organization dedicated to promoting literacy and the love of books. Here’s the set-up: You read a book, go to the website, get an ID# for said book, write the ID# in the front cover along with the bookcrossing website and then you “release the book into the wild” (a.k.a. leave it in a public place). Hopefully what will happen is that someone will pick up the free book, read it, log on to bookcrossing.com, say that he/she has received it and read it, and then re-release it so that it can continue its travels. A romantic idea, but when I first heard about it I was quite skeptical. Who does this? Who gives away their books? And do people really pick them up, or do they just get collected by the night custodial staff and dumped into the lost and found purgatory? My skepticism was laid to rest this week when I personally found a book crossing book on the subway. Bel Canot by Ann Patchett, left by someone named Amlos, was waiting for me on the Orange line. Don’t believe me? Check it out. The ID# is 692-4890977 (scroll to the bottom of the page to see where its been). Now that I know these books really do have legs, I plan on releasing some of my own into the wild.