84 book crossing road
Like Shirley Bassey sang, it’s all just little bits of history repeating. Ideas evolve and change. Memes develop and propagate. And books cross and travel… I just heard this programme on the radio. The producers had taken the concept of book crossing one step further and it made fascinating listening. They’d set 84 copies of a book free into the world, with an insert in the book asking people to call in and leave a recorded message describing how they’d found the book, where it was going and so on. The seemingly disparate stories, from all over the world, connected random events and circumstances in people’s everyday lives. It was fascinating hearing how all these people were connected – by a simple book being passed on and on. A bit similar to when, at school, I was asked to write a story I’m sure plenty of school kids are asked to write about – “A Day in the Life of a Penny”. The point being, of course, there is a story to every detail in life – if only we stop to ask.
And, you know, that reminds me about another pastime I need to make sure I pursue soon. Like book crossing, it involves a smidge of randomness, a bit of travel and a dash of hope – geo-caching. Now I just need that GPS…