Charleston Bookcrossing

We’ve had some trouble with this particular host being reliable.  For the most up-to date info on Charleston BookCrossing click here for a more updated site about BookCrossing in Charleston.

Our new meeting day is the second Sunday of each month at 2 p.m. Locations will always be posted over at local events, on our Yahoo Group and at www.bookcrossing.com in the Conventions and Meetings Forum. Hope to see you soon!

If you ever attend Charleston SC Meets, please go to our yahoo site and vote for your preference of meeting days/times. We currently are meeting on the second Saturday of each month at 2 pm. The new poll looks at which day of the week and part of the day is best for you to meet.

The yahoo group link is here.

You have to be a member to vote, but if you live in the area and are not yet a member, just send a request and one of the moderators will approve you.

The poll will run until January 31.

Thanks!

If you’re looking for books “in the wild” and want your hunting to be easier, be sure to check out our OBCZ’s (Official BookCrossing Zones) where local members help keep shelves of books stocked at certain businesses. Our list of OBCZ’s is on our home page, but we’re thrilled that several new zones have welcomed BookCrossing. (And also thrilled that you can get a nice cuppa at these places. Stop by Muddy Waters Coffee Bar 2 on 1331 Ashley River Road, West Ashley or Jumpin’ Juice & Java (It’s in Summerville, but that’s close to Charleston!) 10597 Dorchester Rd. We also have a shelf at the James Island Curves on Folly Rd.
And while we’re updating, Saturday, Dec 1 is our Second Annual Great Book Give Away at Marion Square. We’ll be at the corner of King and Calhoun, giving books to any interested passers by. (If it rains, we’ll meet at Kudu Coffee on Vanderhorst.) Stop by and Say hi!

The BookCrossing Convention has come and gone– BookCrossers from all over the world came and painted the town Ballycumber yellow. The best guesstimate of number of books released was around 2000– but that’s just a guess based on release notes. No telling how many were just left in the wild without a release note, or were passed from hand to hand etc. You’ll find a lot of pictures over at flickr, where a number of people pooled their photos together in a group. Pictures below is the cake (made by Wade over at The Frosted Monkey on Ashley River Road) for our opening reception.

Life has continued here in the Holy City for local BookCrossers. The post-convention updates will be less frequent, but you can always find us on yahoo group and at our monthly get togethers around town. Check our Local Events page here, too, for meetings, or the BookCrossing Conventions and Meetings Forum. And be sure to keep your eyes out for books in the wild!

The BookCrossing Convention is approaching quite quickly (April 20-22). Take a look at the schedule here. We’ve got people registered from all over the US, Canada, England, Ireland, Wales and Australia (though who wouldn’t want to come to Charleston in April? August would be another story!) There are lots of interesting events going on with the Convention as well, including a Garden Tea at Mary Whyte’s studio, Literary tours with Joye Hanna, and discounted tours with Palmetto Carriage and Bulldog Tours. All the info can be found over on the Convention pages. If you’d like to help out at the Registration table or in any other way for the weekend, give bookczuk a shout.

Many, many thanks to Dakota Walker, who has come up with yet another fabulous way to help raise money for Trident Literacy. Not only will Dakota be offering chair massages at the Convention, but she will also host a writer’s workshop on Saturday. Partial proceeds from both these activities will go to TLA. Barnes and Noble is also running a book fair at the Convention to benefit TLA, as is Rutledge Coffee and Cream at their location at 511 Rutledge Ave at Nunan, one block North of the crosstown, downtown.

Our monthly meetup will be at Muddy Waters on March 10 at 2pm. Muddy Waters is located at 1739 Maybank Hwy at the corner of Maybank and Folly Rd. Next month (April 14), take a minute from your last minute tax rush to join us for our meetup which will be at the Convention site to give us all a sneak preview.

If you’re near a radio on Monday, March 12, tune into any of the South Carolina Public Radio stations for the program Your Day. One of the guests is bookczuk, talking about BookCrossing.

For regular updates on the convention, see our Live Journal as well.

For those of you who don’t go to the BookCrossing website often, or missed getting the most recent Newsletter, the site is asking for user feedback and input. There’s a very quick survey you can participate in and let them know your thoughts. AND, the results of the survey will be shared with the world at the April Convention, here in Charleston! Very cool. There’s a thread here in the Announcement forum with some tips regarding the survey, should you have any trouble with it.

We’re 3 months from the Convention (more or less) and things are beginning to click together. The list of attendees grows and we’re thrilled to see we’ll be welcoming BookCrossers from all over the US, Canada, England, Ireland and Australia. Big news also in that while working with our local Enterprise car rental folks for a discount on cars rented by Convention Attendees, BookCrossing and Enterprise started a partnership! Now, if you use the corporate ID number for BookCrossing when making your reservation, you can save 10% on rentals picked up at the airport or 5% for rentals from other Enterprise locations. To make it even easier, we’ve set up a link, with the corporate ID directly embedded in it on our site here– click over to Directions and scroll to the bottom of the page, then use the link there.
Update from our meetup: We’re planning a Road Trip in February to the SC Book Festival in Columbia (Feb 23-25). Details to follow. Honest. And our April meetup will be at the Convention site.

This month, we have two opportunities to get together: our usual meetup on Dec 9 (which was great fun) and we’ll have a visit to Charleston from Candieb, so will be getting together December 21 (details under local events.) We also were the recipients of a huge Holiday Gift bookbox from BookCrosser Nocturne, which was dispursed at our meetup. The remainder of the books will go out to the OBCZs. And as the year draws to a close, remember that the deadline for Early Bird registration for the convention ends January 31. Get your reservations in now and save!

Congratulations to spaceystacey. She is the new owner of the beautiful handpainted tile by local Charleston artist J.Brooke Whitmore! And congratulations to polliwog, who sported wings for a month, courtesy of the Charleston BookCrossers.

We had lovely September and October Meetups, with several new faces attending. As usual, lots of books were shared, snagged and left to stock the shelf at Muddy Waters. Shadie graced our group with a visit from Greenville. Welcome to South Carolina!

October 22: Registration for the Convention is now open! Click here to come join us in April!

October 24: Now accepting PayPal for Convention registrations!

Congratulations to the Sumter BookCrossing group on the article in The Item. Will post a link directly to the article when one is available. Article due out on October 28.

November 1: Mailing address for Convention posted on our Convention: Contact Us page

We had a lovely meetup on Nov 11 at Muddy Waters, and will meet there again December 9th. We’re planning some sort of group activity to release books and spread the word about BookCrossing to locals, either in Charleston or North Charleston. Details to follow.

November 17: In the category of “Things for which we are thankful” would have to be the incredible donation for the convention made by Dakota Walker of Om-Body. Dakota is a licensed massage therapist and will be helping us out with a fundraiser at the Convention to benefit our charity of choice, Trident Literacy Association. Just think…you’ll be able to get a nice massage and help promote literacy, all at a BookCrossing Convention. Wow!

November 18: We made BC News!