I have not bothered much to update this site, but I decided now would be a good time to post some of the journal entries I've received since this project started. A total of 53 entries have been made by people who have caught books that were released by thewheelbarrow. We haven't relaesed any new books lately, not with the fervor we did when we were doing the film project, but that is what has made the most recent journal entries so satisfying - it means the books we set free so many months ago did find homes. Probably all of them did not, but I'm a lot of them did. As people get around to remembering the funny way they came across such-and-such a book, they are making their entries on BookCrossing. Here are some of my favorities:
Book Title: Lucy and Desi: The Legendary Love Story of Television's Most Famous Couple Author: Warren G. Harris Journal Entry: Saturday, October 18, 2003
I work for the Sonoma Valley Visitors Bureau and our main bureau is located on the plaza of Sonoma in the old Carnegie library. I found this book on the steps of the bulding as I was coming in to work.
I read the book - entitled " Lucy and Desi" and even though this is not my usual type of book, i did enjoy it. I appreciated the chance to read a book that I would not normally select.
I released this book at the Sonoma Overlook hiking trail today. Since many visitors and locals hike this amazing trail - i thought it might me a good spot.
Enjoy! Jaclyn
Book Title: Rocks and Minerals Author: Paul E. Desautels Journal Entry: Tuesday, November 04, 2003
I caught this book up at the Less Than Amateur Film Festival in Sonoma. My kids love rocks and minerals and I don't plan on releasing this book anytime soon. I think it has great potential as a reference book for school.
Book Title: Petals on the Wind Author: V. C. Andrews Journal Entry: Thursday, November 27, 2003
I found the book on a table at a bistro across the street from Rin's Thai in downtown Sonoma. I was hanging out with some friends so i just grabbed looked at the bookmark and it didn't think twice. I didn't really get what book crossing was, I still don't. However it was really cool, I really enjoyed the book, it was a good fantasy read. An easy read, it was just the kind of book i needed right now. I want to find some really cool place to release it to, but I don't know where yet. I think I also want to release some of my favorite books, so maybe I'll get the bookcrossing stuff myself!
Book Title: #1 the wheelbarrow Journal Author: Every Man, Woman & Child Journal Entry: Friday, December 26, 2003
I have been wanting to journal for so long, but as the very busy mother of Lucy and Duncan I never seem to find the time, space and a working pen! So now I have a journal and I have journalled!
There were some things that I knew, but have been hiding from, and now that I have them down on paper I have done a few things to set about some change.
I might make a few more entries while I try to think of a release plan.
Book Title: I'm a Good Man, But... Author: Fritz Ridenour Journal Entry: Monday, December 29, 2003
I was riding my bike through a local park with my sister. I am a christian and just relocated to the sonoma area from virginia to pursue the ministry. I have been having trouble with my purpose and where God would have me in this new surrounding and the emotional stresses of moving. This book was a blessing to me in more ways than one! I am so thankful that it was placed on that bench. It was very timley in my life even though it was dated. I enjoyed the lessons and words of wisdom it offered. I am currently reading it again and will be setting it free for someone else to be blessed
by it. Thank you!
the travels & travails of a lowly wheelbarrow filled with books
the wheelbarrow is an entity created by me, Abott, and my friend SGinger as a result of coming across, quite by accident, the website BookCrossing.com. We're doing a less-than-amateur film project with some people from our town. This is the nascent stage of our idea for our film project. I came across BookCrossing in a blog I was reading a week or so ago. The idea tickled my fancy to no end. I had been thinking of doing a film project called Why I Write in which I would interview people I knew who were writers or aspiring writers and ask them why they write. The idea was solid, and inspired almost in whole by Jonathan Franzen's book of essays How To Be Alone. The other inspiration was my grandma, who, at the age of 85, was an unpublished author who bequeathed her book into my care to hopefully one day publish. The book that grandma gave me is especially symbolic because her death on the morning of 6 August 2003 has made the idea of immortalizing her something akin to a crusade. The intent behind the original film project of Why I Write was an excuse on my part to interview & film grandma before her death. I was unable to film or interview her because the series of strokes she had before her death made understanding her speech extremely difficult.
The evolution of Why I Write into a film project based on BookCrossing came about when I realized that for me, reading has always been a primary function of my life whereas writing has always been secondary. This insight, of writing being a natural continuation of having been a reader my entire life, prompted a shift from the focus of the film being about writing and turned it into a project based first on reading. And what better way to see into the secret life and desires of readers than to hook into something like BookCrossing? Whereby a person would be inclined, whether by curiousity or a foreknowledge of BookCrossing, to pick up a book - off a park bench, in a laundromat, in a movie theater, on a coffee shop countertop? Capturing that moment on film, the release and the subsequent catch, is the idea that fired me into registering on BookCrossing and rallying my friends to get involved.
The wheelbarrow project came about after a lengthy conversation between SGinger, a friend of hers who was visiting for the day, my mother and my sister. We were trying to brainstorm ideas for release locations. I started laughing as a silly idea occurred to me. "Wouldn't it be hilarious to just fill up an old wheelbarrow with books to be released and leave it on some random streetcorner somewhere?" We all ho-ho-hoed for a bit, imagining leaving it in the Financial District in San Francisco where besuited business folk would walk around and ignore it. But then the more we talked about it, the more we realized that this could be a really great idea. A traveling BookCrossing Cross Zone, never the same location twice, but conspicuous by it's very out-of-placeness. A wheelbarrow filled with books where you least expect to find them. Hmmm. And there the idea was born for the wheelbarrow.
My grandma is undeniably the most significant person to shape my appreciation & passion for the arts & humanities, reading & writing, quirkiness & outside-the-boxness. Without grandma's influence, my world would have been considerably less colorful, the sharpness of every artistic sensibility dulled by not having had grandma's imprint, the thumbpress of her sensitivity, stamped firmly into my heart and my soul. The film project and the resulting wheelbarrow project are both labors of love influenced by the heartbreaking loss I feel at the death of a grandmother whose existence I cannot imagine no longer being a part of this world.
If you found a book that is part of the wheelbarrow project, are interested in knowing more about the wheelbarrow project, have books you'd like to donate to the wheelbarrow project, or anything else having to do with the wheelbarrow project, please feel free to email thewheelbarrowATemailDOTcom. If you have comments to add to this page that you would like to post, there is a commenting feature at the bottom of each post which can be accessed by clicking where it says empty ole wheelbarrow. If there is already a comment, it will say 1 comment in the wheelbarrow. Your comments are always welcome!
my book crossing name: thewheelbarrow
Book Donors' Thank You Corner (Books to Date: 931)
