Twice in the past two weeks I've received swap books.  BOTH have been marked with bookcrossing.com numbers.  The one I received today had the website sticker in the front.  The book is at end of life anyway, so in the grand scheme of things, it's no loss.  The other one looked brand new and the sender had handwritten the number in the book. 

I'd never even heard of that website until I got the first book and looked to see what the heck it was.  I guess it a means of tracking a used book in its travels.  I guess some people might get into that, but sheesh, to mar a perfectly good book for the purpose......  It seems almost sacrilegious.   A removable sticky note with the number and website would have served the purpose, but ballpoint pen in an otherwise pristine book?  *insert fainting smiley here* 

Lots of people like bookcrossing, but there are definitely members who don't want bookcrossing books.  You can put in a requestor condition so you won't get them again.

Don't get me wrong..... I have nothing against the website or the concept.  I would have even gotten a kick out of leaving the number in it for the next person if it had been on a sticky note (though I wouldn't have registered it myself).  It just taking unnecessary pen to paper that made me swoon (probably too many years of hearing my mother yell, "DON'T WRITE IN YOUR BOOKS!") and seeing permanent stickers (I even peel off price stickers). 

We are bookworm sisters Kath!  Mom was a school librarian, to this day I wouldn't dream of writing in a book . . . I even cringe at the thought of writing in my Bible (a gift from my father) which I have no intention of ever discarding lol!  Even a light pencil note on the fly page I will go back later and erase.

I also don't care for the larger bookcrossing stickers, luckily they rarely come my way.

I only ever received one book like this, but I agree, it seemed to ruin a perfectly good book. There were like 3 stickers total on mine, including one directly on the front cover. Pretty excessive.

I got a bookcrossings book once that had stickers on front and back, obscuring the title and description, as well as one on the title page, all three stickers actually laminated, and stamps all over the copyright, title, and first pages of the text.  There was a bookcrossing bookmark, and a business card as well.  Excessive is definitely a nice way of putting it.

I had one with a huge bookcrossing sticker on it.  About 3 x 4.  At least that one was on the inside cover. 

I thought that bookcrossing was to "leave" a book in a random public place for someone else to "happen" across.....is that not what it is for any more?

I thought that bookcrossing was to "leave" a book in a random public place for someone else to "happen" across.....is that not what it is for any more?

Either the PBS member just happened upon this book and decided to pass it on or they're cheaters who want to see the book advance faster than it might if it was littering a public area.

Writing in a book is not a crime and it's postable if it's not on a text page.  Neither is a sticker.  They are postable here and RC's are the way to not get them if they bother you. 

No - leaving a random book is not the ONLY purpose of bookcrossing.  If interested, you can find out all about them at their web site.

I read it and decided it wasn't for me.  But. . . this site allows these books.

Crikey, nobody said it was a crime! 

Both of these books were registered by the people who sent them to me.  Since PBS has their own tracking system, adding bookcrossing stickers was redundant.  It certainly didn't bother me to the point of creating an RC for it.  Just one of those things that makes you go, "Why?!  Why?!" 

I really LIKE the idea of leaving books in a random place for someone else to find!  If that's what bookcrossing was created for, that's a very cool idea.  Maybe that's what I'll do with these books.  Yep, that's what I'll do! 

And if I ever DO decide to register a book with bookcrossing, I'll label it with a yellow sticky note!  (IMHO, one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century.)

I think the point of the stickers is to try to make sure the book does get passed on. They don't bother me in general, but if I got one on a book I was intending to keep I probably wouldn't, I would just get back in line for another copy.

I think my issue with the book crossing books is some ppl go sticker nuts.

Bookwormkath- most bookcrossing peeps do not want something that is removable, they want it to stay with the book for its whole life span.

I'd think a discreet sticker on the inside over would get the point across without annoying others.

I've not received any from PBS but I have seen them in a cafe, I did not pick them up because I was unable to read the blurb on the back and it was not a title I recognised. Plus I did not want some honking bright pink sticker on the back cover attracting everyones eye.

I've had two Bookcrossings books, I finally passed them on . . . with those stickers, they just didn't feel like 'mine'.  I would have a very difficult time adding a Bookcrossing item to my 'keeper' self.

I've been lucky, I've only run across those with small stickers inside. I wouldn't want one on the cover obscuring any info or otherwise, but the small ones inside haven't been a problem. I

It's really weird, as much as I've seen people talk about BookCrossing books, I've been to their site, for curiousity and even occasionally for book descriptions when editing a book. But, in the nearly 5 yrs I have belonged to PBS, I have NEVER rec'd one. Of course, now that I've said that, I'll receive them to the point that I'll need to create an RC, but I just find it so strange to have NEVER rec'd one, when some people receive them enough to create an RC.

Just thinking outloud or publicly or whatever this would be called :)

I've received a couple of bookcrossing books from here, one of which was worn enough I didn't repost it into the PBS system.

But all of them had smallish stickers on the inside, except for the one I did not repost, it was on the front cover and I found it quite annoying as I like to look at book art, especially on older books.

I haven't received many though, to warrant an RC about it, but then, people seldom BC sci-fi/fantasy books.

But yeah, some people are too sticker happy when it comes to BC, especially those posted into the system here.  Something unobtrusive would be best.

I'm a member of bookcrossing as well as here. Most members there suggest a well affixed bookplate on the flyleaf or inside the cover and a small sticker on the spine, although people are free to label them as they wish.

That being said, I prefer not to mix the two. Any book I get here I consider as having been purchased, seeing as how I either bought credits or traded books I paid for. This would mean that I am able to -keep- them. The idea of bookcrossing, as I understand it anyway, is to keep books circulating.