By Kelsey Osterman
Editorial Intern

The book looked homeless at first, sitting all alone in the Friendship Heights Metrorail station.

But a label fastened to its cover explained why it was there.

“I’m not lost — I’m on a journey!”

The book, released into the “wild” by a member of a mischievous international network of “BookCrossers” was simply waiting to meet its next reader.

The label on the book’s cover included an identification number and an Internet address, www.bookcrossing.com. At the website, each reader is encouraged to log in and write a journal entry for the book he or she has found. The book’s wanderings can then be traced, and the reader can be linked to other readers around the world.

For ten years now BookCrossers have been finding, reading and releasing books of all shapes and sizes, sharing exploits and musings online with the goal of “helping make the world a library.”

“Sometimes they just move magically,” joked local BookCrosser Kate Weber, whose favorite book is The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. “I really wish I could tag along with my books.”

Organizers estimate that since the BookCrossing was founded in April 2001, nearly 1 million members have BookCrossed over 7 million books in 132 countries around the world.

Earlier this month, members from a host of countries including England, Germany, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, who are usually only linked by the Internet, gathered in the District to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of their adventure in sharing.

Weber, whose BookCrosser screen name is melydia,  along with a couple of fellow book lovers, Kate McDevitt (screen name KateKintail) and Christal Groves (crrcookie) teamed up to organize this year’s convention.

“It was so much fun,” said Weber “I just didn’t want it to end.”

The three women have been friends for about four years, through the D.C. branch of BookCrossing, called BCinDC. The group, which has about 60 members from Virginia, Maryland and D.C., meets once a month to discuss books and pass them along. Many of BCinDC BookCrossers have become close, but the three convention planners have found friends worldwide through BookCrossing.

“It’s a built-in group of friends everywhere you go,” said McDevitt, a Harry Potter fan. When the three women travelled to Amsterdam for last year’s convention, the eruption of an Icelandic volcano forced them to stay for a few extra days. The friends enjoyed the chance to hang out with other BookCrossers, even if it was an unexpected delay to their travel plans.

“I’ve never found a group this generous,” Weber added.

That generosity helped the three convention planners when the 2011 event left them in debt. BookCrossing corporate is not involved in the planning that went went in and does not provide monetary support, according to Weber. Most of the event funding came from the $150 entrance fee provided by each guest, but Weber, McDevitt and Groves covered the rest of the cost. “Due to very generous donations on the part of BookCrossers and other friends…we’re walking away owing considerably less than we were before, but we’re still owing money,” Weber said.

During the conference, held April 15-17, about 100 book lovers took part in a wide variety of events including book buffets, a literary museum-hopping trip, and book-release walks. The weekend also included plenty of sightseeing and a bus tour of the monuments at night. Even Saturday’s unfortunate weather did not stop the bibliophiles from enjoying their time in the city.

On Sunday night, after all the events were over, the last remaining BookCrossers gathered at Murphy’s Grand Irish Pub in Alexandria, in anticipation of the 2012 convention in Dublin, Ireland.

“I wish it could last longer because I wish I could spend more time with these people… They’re just amazing people, all of them,” Weber said.

And though two years of planning are now over, Weber, Groves and McDevitt still have their monthly meetings to attend. And there are always more books to read and release into the wild.

Crossing Paths With a Book

By Kelsey Osterman
Editorial Intern

When my editor plopped a copy of Alfred Camus’ Caligula on my desk, I had never heard of BookCrossing. A reader had found the book and passed it along to her. A Post-it Note on the book revealed that it had been discovered in the Friendship Heights Metrorail station on the red line.

As I researched the BookCrossing organization, I was intrigued by the concept of traveling books. When Mary gave me the assignment, she mentioned  the books were homeless in a way, moving around without a permanent home. But in this case, the concept of “homeless” was positive. Great books were being shared and savored, instead of sitting unread on bookshelves across the world.

And here was this little red book, a book, full of thousands of words, which had made its way through the D.C. Metro system to find me. As a result, an article, made up of hundreds of words, has found its way into your hands, via your local Street Sense vendor. Funny how it’s all interconnected, isn’t it?

The book we originally found is in French, and since I remember little from my years of studying the language, I will not be reading this one before I release it again. But when I met with Kate Weber, Christal Groves and Kate McDevitt, they gave me another book, this one in English. I plan on reading it during my upcoming travels across the country, and before long two little books from the District will be released somewhere new in the U.S.

And as for some of the other books clogging up my shelves at home? Well, I have plans for them, too.