Read-lease

Some girls at my work are starting a book club. One of the girls suggested a book by Jodi Picoult called My Sister's Keeper. I ran to B & N on my lunch hour to see if they had it, and, very unlike my favorite book store, they did not. I was disappointed, but left with 3 others (2 hilarious choices by Celia Rivenbark, and a children's book I read long ago and wanted to re-visit, The Callendar Papers) and a movie (The Bridges of Madison County... one of the few movies that lives up to the book's wonderfulness).
Later that night, my husband and I went to Panera (our deal was Sunday night we eat at Burger King... yuk, and watch Harry Potter for him, Monday night we eat at Panera, watch BoMC for me). There, lying on a shelf was My Sister's Keeper. I've noticed before a few books lying around on a shelf, but figured they were for education or something, so I never picked one up. I had some time, so was reading the poster, and this is the coolest concept: It's called BookCrossing. There are specified sites, or you can get stickers to designate a certain book as a swap book. You leave them lying around, wherever, and others pick them up, if interested. Each book gets it's own "call number" and you can register for free where you left one, or where you picked one up.
It reminds me of a time before we were worried about littering up the environment, when kids were allowed to release helium balloons with a message for whomever found it to contact the class who sent it off.