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BookProject
Travelogs
Logistics
Deploying books and DVDs
Book and DVD reviews
Reading lists
To-read lists
Glossary
What is BookProject?
The BookProject website is a tool for circulating issue-oriented books and DVDs.
That is, people can use our website to follow the travels of books and DVDs they
circulate among friends and beyond.
Our website also provides an open, non-commercial platform for people to read and
post book and DVD reviews.
In addition to our tools for individuals, we provide a chapters
feature for groups. Any group of people, such as a group of friends or a community
group, can create a private chapter on our website. Within a chapter, the group
can maintain a central reading list, exchange book and DVD reviews, and post announcements.
Finally, our website provides a place for groups and individuals to publish reading
lists.
All BookProject services are free. We are volunteer-run. We do not sell books (or
anything else). We do not accept advertising.
For an overview of our website and our purpose in creating it, visit our
welcome page.
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Why circulate issue-oriented books and DVDs?
One reason for circulating issue-oriented books and DVDs is self-evident: to raise
awareness of the topics presented in the books and films.
However, there is also a second reason.
If two friends both read the same book on global warming, but neither knows that
the other has read it, it is likely that nothing will change in their relationship
as a result of reading the book. However, if one of the friends reads the book as
the result of the other friend handing it to her, then a new connection, or
synapse, is created between the two friends, and they have a channel over
which they can discuss the range of material presented in the book.
With many people circulating books and films on sustainability, or democracy, or
public media, many new connections, or synapses, are created within communities,
and within our society as a whole.
Therefore, while reading an issue-oriented book is plainly valuable in and of itself,
we feel that the act of handing an important book to a friend, and thereby creating
a new synapse within the friendship, is equally valuable.
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Why use a website to circulate books and DVDs?
Traditional book lending is a great way to have a book read by a small number of
friends.
However, if one's goal is to have a book handed from person to person to person,
so that it keeps traveling, then simply giving the book to a friend and asking them
to read it and then hand it on is not usually effective. If the person who launched
the book wants to check whether it has moved from one person to another, they have
to follow up with the person they handed it to, and possibly ask that person to
follow up with the next person, and so on. If the book travels well, the person
who launched it will almost certainly lose track of it altogether. And, as in the
game of telephone, the instruction to read the book and hand it on can get weaker
with each telling, causing the book to lose momentum.
The idea behind BookProject is that it only takes a lightweight circulation tool
to make it possible for people to put books into perpetual motion, handed on from
friend to friend to friend indefinitely (or until the pages fall out). The person
who launches a book can always see how many people have read it to date. And with
circulation instructions inside the front cover of the book, each person who receives
the book is clear that the book is meant to travel.
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What kind of books and DVDs do people circulate with BookProject?
Books and films circulated with BookProject cover a wide range of topics, including
peace, social wealth, sustainability, democracy, and the role of the media
in society.
In many cases, people circulate non-fiction books and films that address these topics
directly, such as books and documentary films on the environment, economics, and
politics.
People also circulate books that present local solutions to global issues. These
include, for example, books on how to reduce personal energy consumption, books
on food choices that promote sustainable agriculture, and books on building peace
starting at the personal, family, and community levels.
Finally, people circulate books and films that approach matters from a different
angle. These include travelogs, biographies, and novels.
You can browse books by category to learn about some of
the books people have found valuable.
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What does it mean to join BookProject?
To join BookProject means to create a member account on our website. Joining is
free, and requires only an email address and a nickname.
BookProject takes members' privacy seriously. We do not display any member's email
address to other members, and we do not provide our members' email addresses to
anybody else for any reason. (See our privacy policy.)
Becoming a member of BookProject gives you access to all of the features of our
website, including creating a personal
to-read list,
viewing the travelogs of books you have handed on,
deploying books,
writing book reviews, and participating in
chapters.
Members can choose to receive periodic emails from BookProject, or not to.
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Do you sell books and DVDs?
No. We do not sell books (or anything else).
We recommend that people buy books from locally owned, independent bookstores, or
from online merchants that they specifically intend to support.
Two resources for locating independent bookstores in the U.S. are
Book Sense and New Pages.
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What is a travelog?
A BookProject travelog is a history of the travels of a single book.
Specifically, a travelog is the collection of log entries created by the string
of people who have read and handed on a particular copy of a book.
Each travelog entry contains the nickname of the member who created the entry (or
"anonymous" for people who created an entry without becoming a BookProject
member), the date of the entry, and a comment about the book, if the reader entered
one.
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Who can view travelogs?
Only BookProject members can view travelogs. Further, a book's travelog can only
be viewed by the person who deployed the book and the string of people who have
read the book.
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I've finished a book. Now what?
When you are finished with a book, please visit our
travelog entry
page and let us know that you've read the book — even if you didn't read it
cover to cover. Then hand the book on to a friend.
We encourage you to keep an open mind when considering who to hand the book on to.
Peace, social wealth, and the environment are of fundamental importance to
all of us, and you may find that books on these topics are received warmly even
where you did not expect it.
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Can I return a book to you?
No. We do not have a facility for receiving books. If you are finished with a book
and you do not have somebody to hand it on to locally, please consider mailing it
to a friend in a different city, or returning it to the person who handed it to
you.
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Can I leave a book in a public place for somebody else to find?
We do not recommend this.
As discussed above, we feel that a good part of the value of
circulating books comes from the simple act of handing a book to a friend.
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What does it mean to "deploy a book"?
To deploy a book means to put a book into circulation with BookProject.
When you choose to deploy a book with BookProject, we email you a book code
that is unique to your book, and that allows your book to be tracked on our website.
You put the book code into your book, and then hand the book on to a friend.
When your friend finishes the book, they can visit our website and log the fact
that they have read the book. They then hand the book on to a friend of theirs,
and so on. Each person who reads the book can keep track of its travels via its
travelog on our website.
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Can other people tell who deployed a particular book?
No. BookProject takes your privacy seriously. When you deploy a book with BookProject,
nothing is displayed on our website, or in the book, that reveals who deployed the
book. (See our privacy policy.)
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If I deploy a book with BookProject, is it still my book?
Yes. However, depending on how you circulate it, the book may or may not be returned
to you. See below.
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If I deploy a book with BookProject, will it be returned to me?
There are two ways to circulate books with BookProject.
BookProject was designed to facilitate the open-ended circulation of books, where
books eventually move outside the circle of friends of the person who deployed the
book. To deploy a book in this manner, simply tell the person you hand the book
to that you intend the book to keep traveling indefinitely. In this case, it is
unlikely that the book will be returned to you.
Alternatively, BookProject can be used to circulate books in more of a close-to-home
manner. In this case, you circulate a book within a close circle of friends and
ask them to return the book to you when they are finished with it. You and your
friends can use the BookProject website to keep track of who has read the book,
and to comment on the book.
Note that BookProject does not assist members in locating or recovering books that
they have deployed with us.
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Can I deploy DVDs with BookProject?
Yes. DVDs are excellent to circulate with BookProject because they can move quickly
from person to person.
DVDs deployed with BookProject are given a "book code" in the same
way that books are. Travelogs are kept for DVDs in the same way they are kept for
books.
Throughout our website, for the sake of brevity, we use the word "book"
to refer to both books and DVDs.
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How do I label a book or DVD when I deploy it?
Each book and DVD deployed with BookProject gets a unique "book code."
(Our book codes look like this: ABCD-EFGH-IJKL.) After a person reads a book,
the book code is the key that lets them create a travelog entry for the book
on our website.
There are a number of ways to put the book code into a book that you are deploying,
and we invite you to be creative with this step.
Together with the book code, please include our website address (www.bookproject.org).
You may also want to include a note to future readers, or an instruction to pass
the book on after reading it.
Here are a few suggestions for attaching a book code to a book (or DVD):
- Write the book code onto a bookmark, postcard, or index card and tuck it into
the book, or into the DVD case.
- Write or computer-print the book code onto a piece of paper, cut it out, and
tape it inside the front cover of the book, or inside the DVD case. (The email you
receive when you deploy a book includes a link to a simple label for computer printing.)
- Write or computer-print the book code onto an adhesive label or sticker and
attach it inside the front cover of the book, or inside the DVD case. (Adhesive
labels come in both permanent and removable varieties.)
- Simply write the book code inside the front cover of the book.
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Who can post book and DVD reviews?
All BookProject members are welcome to post book and DVD reviews.
Book and DVD reviews are moderated by BookProject staff.
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Can I keep my reviews private, so that they are only seen within my chapters?
Yes. On your member preferences page, you can choose whether to allow your book
and DVD reviews to be displayed publicly on our website.
If you choose not to have your reviews displayed publicly, they will be visible
only in BookProject chapters that you create or join.
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What are reading lists?
A reading list is a list of books and films recommended by an individual, group,
or organization.
Each reading list can have its own "review team" of one or more people
who review and rate the books and DVDs on the list.
When you view a particular book or DVD in the context of a reading list, only the
reviews and ratings from that reading list's review team are presented.
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Who can publish reading lists?
All BookProject members are welcome to publish private reading lists within
chapters they create on our website. These reading lists are visible only
to people who join those chapters.
Any individual, group, or organization can also request to publish a public reading
list on our website, provided the reading list does not have a commercial intent.
Instructions for building a reading list are given on our "member FAQ page,"
which is available to BookProject members.
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What is a to-read list?
Our website allows you to keep a private list of books you would like to read and
films you would like to watch. You can add books and DVDs to the list, and prioritize
the items as you like.
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Social wealth
We define social wealth as the ability of a society to nurture its members,
generation after generation, by providing not just food, water, shelter, and health
care, but also community, education, and cultural identity.
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