The next Cape Town meetup is coming up!

When: Sat 23 May, 3pm
Where: Obz Cafe

As always, bring books to swop if you can, otherwise just bring yourself. Friends are always welcome!

We're trying out different venues in search of a new possible OBCZ. If you have any ideas, please let us know!

Posted by sa-reader on the Bookcrossing forums:

Next meeting for bookcrossers in the Pretoria/Tshwane area is on Friday 20 March at 15h30, at Cafe Riche, Church square in central Pretoria. Please join us for coffee, books and a chat if you are in the area.

The next Cape Town meetup is this Saturday, 21 Feb, 15:00-17:00 at Doppio Zero in Cavendish Square. As always, all are welcome! Bring some books to swap if you have, but if you don't come anyway for coffee and some good conversation. Hope to see you there!

Cape Town Bookcrosser Klaradyn asked me to post this for her:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It has just been confirmed that a colleague and I will be going on a business trip of 10 days to Namibia. We'll be travelling through various towns and cities. If you would like me to release one of your books while we are there, please contact me via PM for my postal information, or look me up on RABCK.

What's in it for you?
1) Your book travels to two countries, South Africa and then on to Namibia.
2) I promise to send a postcard from Namibia to every person who sends a book.
3) I will draw the name of one contributor, and that person will get a surprise package from me.

Now here is the problem. We are leaving on 25 February, so any books would need to have reached me by Saturday 21 February at the latest. This means you would have to send it quite quickly. I hope this won't deter you! Thank you to anyone who is considering this :)

Hi all

I am going to be giving away some books as part of a lucky draw to celebrate my recent birthday. There will be a general draw, but also one for South Africans. So if you enter you have two chances to win. To enter all you need to do is look at my bookshelf, pick one of the books marked TBR or AVL and post on this thread in the bookcrossing forum:

http://www.bookcrossing.com/forum/10/5968705/42

I am moonblue on bookcrossing.

I will probably pick the general winner on Sunday 1 Feb, but as this is late notice I will draw teh South African winner a few days into February.

Happy bookcrossing

Message on the forums from sa-reader:

Next meeting of the group is on Friday, 31 October 2008 at 12h30 at Burgundy's Coffee Shop, Atterbury Value Mart, Atterbury road, Faerie Glen in Tshwane/Pretoria. Please join us for coffee and a chat if you are in the area.

The next Cape Town meetup is coming up!

When: Saturday 4 October
Time: 12:00
Where: Mugg & Bean in the V&A Waterfront

Bring a book or books to exchange, or just join us for coffee and a chat.

For more information contact klaradyn.

This is the first book of a series, which I bought on a fleemarket for books in Cambridge.
The story takes place in Cambrigde 1348 and the following books (must be about 13) come after. A little bit like Ellis Peters, but I like the story more. Its not just a hist. novel and not just a crime story. But judge yourself.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6549598/

Das ist das erste Buch einer Serie, welches ich vor Jahren auf einem Bücherflohmarkt in Cambridge erstande habe.
Es ist nicht in deutsch zu haben, was ich nicht wirklich verstehe. Es spielt im Cambridge um 1348, die nachfolgenden Bänder (ich glaube es gibt mittlerweile 13) reihen sich zeitlich an.
Es hat ein wenig was von Ellis Peters ist aber, finde ich, von der Geschichte ansprechender.
Es ist kein "Historienschinken" aber auch nicht NUR ein Krimi. Aber seht selbst.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/6549598/

Whiskers of evil is still in SA. Is anyone additional interested in this book before it travels further to Germany again.

This is exciting! Sa-reader is starting up a group for Bookcrossers in Pretoria. If you live in the area and are interested, please let her know at her forum announcement.

Now, how about some meetup groups in Joburg and the Eastern Cape? :)

Tony Leon

On the Contrary: Leading the Opposition in a Democratic South Africa
By Tony Leon

Recommended by joburg_za and za_politix

As I mentioned in a previous post, Canadian bookcrosser KarenBC has been sending books to poor schools in various parts of the world. Now she's specifically requested books for a Zimbabwean school.

Read the letter that prompted this request (and get the postal address) here:
http://bookcrossing.com/forum/5/5469153

According to her website, the kind of books they need are:
1. The Animal Farm by George Orwell
2. The Petals of Blood by Ngugi wa Thiango
3. The River Between by Chinua Achebe
4. Reader' Digest Condensed Books
5. Magazines
6. Dictionaries & Atlases
7. Harry Potter series
8. The Hardy Boys
9. Nancy Drew series
10. Adventures of Tom Sawyer
11. Enid Blyton stories
12. The Scriptures of Jesus
13. Poultry - (eggs & meat production)
14. Pork production
15. Education materials - pens/pencils, flash cards.
16. Books for older children to provide good reading practice for preparing to sit for national examinations.

Hi everyone

It's time for the annual Cape Town Book Fair again, and this year the Bookcrossers of Cape Town will be there to share the love!

Join us on Saturday 14 June @3pm in the cafeteria opposite the exhibition hall for coffee and booksharing :)
If there are books left over after the meetup, we'll release them inside the exhibition area.

Please help spread the word! If you're not going to be in Cape Town yourself, tell your friends who will be here to come!

So we're having another meetup in Cape Town... Yes, yes, I know it's been just three weeks since our last meetup but this is a special occasion: it seems that the Coffee Bean is finally closing down for good (it's been unreliable for a few months now), which means this will be our last meetup there, and we'll have to find a new location for our OBCZ.

The meetup is on Saturday 26 April at 3pm. We'll talk about options for a new OBCZ then; we already have a few ideas.

I'd also like to use this opportunity to challenge all the non-Capetonian Bookcrossers:
How about some news from the rest of the country? Are you guys having meetups? Any OBCZ news? There's quite a lot of activity on the Go Hunting pages from Gauteng and the Eastern Cape, and I for one would like to hear more about some of that. Please don't let this community turn into a Cape Town-only thing (we already have a Facebook group for that). Tell us what you guys are up to!

It's been a while since we've had a meetup in Cape Town, but we've finally gotten around to organising another one. It'll be on Saturday 5 April at 15:00. At the Coffee Bean, as usual.

If you're new to Bookcrossing or you've never been to a meetup before, please try to come along! It's all very relaxed: we just chat and swap some books over coffee or milkshakes. You don't have to bring anything, but if you've got some books that are ready to be released you can bring them with. And feel free to invite some friends whom you think would be interested.

The Coffee Bean, by the way, is in Main Road, Rondebosch, above Pick 'n Pay. Parking is around the back. If you need more detailed directions, just leave a comment here.

Hope to see you there!

PS. If you're on Facebook you might like to check out our group: Bookcrossing Cape Town.

Hello friends. One of my bookrings ist international an will be (hopefully) arriving shortly in SA. If Someone (either SA or any other country in Africa) is interested just PM me via BC or if PM isnt working via the adress named on my shelf. I'll put You on the list

The ring is Whisker of Evil by Rita Mae Brown

Please name if you have no possibility to post international (europe) because after SA the bookring will trave north again, so I can sort You in the list as it suits You best.

Klaradyn is looking for books to release at this year's Klein-Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees in Oudtshoorn.

If you'd like to send something, PM her for her details and try to get them to her by 17 March. It sounds like a great idea :)

It's a long time since I've released a book into the wild, and there's been no response to the other ones I've released. But I'll be trying again tonight, at the Dros Restaurant in Hatfield (probably). We'll be having dinner with my wife's cousin, and might try to persuade him to take it -- would that be cheating?

For those of you who haven't seen it yet, there's an article about Bookcrossing in today's Sunday Times! It's quite a good explanation of what we do and why we do it. Well done, robertso!

I can't find the article online so rush out and buy the newspaper if you can. Perhaps we'll even get one or two new members from this :)

Time for another meetup in Cape Town!

It'll be this coming Saturday the 15th at 3pm at the Coffee Bean.

Hopefully some of the new members who joined up at the launch event will come this time. If you haven't been to a meetup before, this would be a good time to come as there'll probably be a bunch of other new people this time ;)

As always, bring some books to swap and some bookish friends who might be interested. Hope to see you all there!

Another not-strictly-BC post, but I figure you guys will find this interesting, if not useful...

I'm sure everyone has come across the rather hefty 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die by now. I'm an enthusiastic maker and collector of lists, so books like this make me very happy, but I can't afford to buy my own copy to tick off the books I've read and see how many more I have to go.

Fortunately, a blogger (or possibly, two bloggers) called Arukiyomi has provided a simple solution by creating a spreadsheet with all 1001 books (phew!) and making it available online for free download.

Once you've downloaded the spreadsheet, you fill in your age and mark off the books you've read. The spreadsheet then tells you what percentage of the list you've completed and how many you'll have to read per year (assuming you reach the average life expectancy for Westerners) to finish all the books before you die.

I've apparently read an embarrassing 6.59% of the total. But I only have to read 17 of these books a year to complete the list - not too bad, especially since I have no intention of ever reading some of them, regardless of how many lists they pop up on, so it's actually a bit less.

Download the spreadsheet here