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In the past five years Christchurch woman Lesley Gilder, aged 53, has discarded more than 5600 used books in public spaces but she hasn't been fined for littering or any other antisocial behaviour.
She is an avid member of the steadily growing book-crossing community - a global network
of half a million people intent on enabling strangers to serendipitously discover their surplus books.
It was finding one such "released" book in 2002 that inspired Gilder to register at the www.bookcrossing.com website that facilitates tracking books on the loose. "When I found a book it was so exciting and I couldn't wait to get home and log on," she says. "And the rest is history."
And her history is impressive. The book-crossing website records her vital statistics under her screen name "lytteltonwitch". She has released 5676 books into the wild; 1381 of them have been "caught", - found by someone who then noted the find appropriately on the website.
She attributes her solid hit rate of 24 per cent to the fact she releases books in areas with high pedestrian counts, such as around Christchurch's Arts Centre.
Martin Braunton, aged 41, of the Bombay Hills, has released 36 books since January last year. He subscribes to the philosophy that the act of giving freely will reap rewards.
"I just think it's kind of important to... just give something away free," he says. "It'll always come back to you, because life works in that sort of circle."
Braunton has bought books on Trade Me for the sole purpose of releasing them, and admits the act of book-crossing gladdens his heart. "It's a nice feeling knowing someone's going to find your book."
He released his first one - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - in the Auckland Museum next to a waka. It was found by someone from Palmerston North and it is currently in Britain.
During a release in Pukekohe, a pair of schoolboys approached him and asked what he was up to. "I tried to explain book-crossing to them which they didn't really get it. They thought it was really strange."
He now executes his releases covertly to reduce his chances of being caught.
BookCrossing's California-based chief executive officer Scott Sorochak says New Zealand's total of 6762 registered members puts it in the top 10 of 120 countries. Canterbury, with 1620 members (compared to 1588 in Auckland), is especially well-represented. Sixty-five per cent of book-crossers are women. Seventy-five per cent are between 30 and 60 years old.
Books earmarked for release are registered on the site and given a unique identification number, which is recorded on a label informing the subsequent finder how to access the site and log the find. The label is attached to the book before it is released. At present, 370 books are on the loose in New Zealand.
The altruistic aims of the BookCrossing site are to promote literacy and to make books more accessible. Within two years, it hopes to increase membership from nearly 600,000 to more than two million.
The core activity of releasing, finding and tracking books is facilitated free of charge, but the organisation does have a financial agenda. Sorochak says income is generated in three main ways: through the online store, advertising revenue and members paying to achieve premium membership status.
Gilder, who is helping to organise the 2009 World BookCrossing Convention to be held in Christchurch, admits she is enchanted by the whimsical nature of the activity. "It's just such a random concept," she says.
Random it may be but it has captured the imagination of devotees worldwide. An idea very much of the moment, book-crossing is an appealing mix of fashionable philanthropy, random acts of kindness, and the notion of paying favours forward. And it's all harnessed by the power of the web.
The fact that it operates largely outside the capitalist system makes it even more attractive. Suddenly, there is such a thing as a free book.
Books are typically released in places such as cafes, restaurants, airports (not recommended by the site for security reasons), hospitals, post offices, hotels, museums, parks and even on buses and at A" machines.
Gilder has a penchant for what are known in the industry as "themed releases", such as releasing Christmas books at Christmas time, Elvis books on the anniversary of his death, books called Foreign Exchange outside money exchanges, and books called Autumn Leaves under trees in autumn.
"I like my themed releases. Otherwise I'd get bored," Gilder says.
On Father's Day this year she liberated Dad by Choice, Father Next Door and Reluctant Father. Gilder says that Mills and Boon books are great titles for such releases.
But not everyone understands the motivation behind it all.
"My workmates think I'm mad," says Gilder. She has been chased by a well meaning member of the public, not familiar with book-crossing, waving the book she left behind.
"Some people just don't get the concept that we're giving the book away. They just feel there's a catch to it."
