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BookRayGirl - Book Rays Central
So BookRayGirl - How do the Book-Rays work??!!!

Here is where I reveal all - how do the book-rays work?

What is Bookcrossing?
 
Oh where to begin!  Thankfully TexasWren, another bookcrosser, has prepared a marvellous web site answering every possible question you can think of about Bookcrossing.
 
What is a book-ray?
 
A book-ray is like a book-ring except that the book will never return to me.  Instead, each book will just keep travelling the globe from bookcrosser to bookcrosser and my karma will get better and better as a result!
 
Where did the idea come from?
 
It was in a forum that cliff1976 first mentioned the concept of bookrays. I really loved this idea and decided that I wanted to try and establish bookrays for some of the books on my shelf (check out my alter ego, LeighBCD).

How do I join a book-ray?

Each person who wants to participate in one of my book-rays sends me a private message via my bookcrossing bookshelf.  Please send the private message to "BookRayGirl" and not to LeighBCD.

I will then add your name to the list of bookcrossers who want to read the book on each book's home page.  The concept of the book-ray is that each book should be passed, in turn, to each person on the list.

In order to maintain privacy, each book's home page will only publish the Bookcrossing member name of the participants.   Please note that I will add bookcrossers to a list strictly in the order in which I receive the private messages - names will not be grouped by geographical location.

How does it work?

Each time a member of a book-ray receives a book, they should make a journal entry on the Bookcrossing web site recording the fact that they have received it (so that we can keep track of its location!) and, later on, their thoughts about the book in the usual bookcrossing manner!

Once that member ("Member X") of the book-ray is ready to pass the book along the chain, Member X should send a private message to the next person in the list listed under their name ("Member Y") asking them for their address details.  Member X then sends the book to Member Y. 

What happens if I do not hear from the next person in the chain?

If Member X does not hear from Member Y within a reasonable number of days (14 days should be the maximum waiting time), then Member X should send a private message to the bookcrosser listed immediately under Member Y ("Member Z") requesting Member Z's details, and so forth, until Member X receives confirmation that someone is still willing to be a member of the bookray - and then he or she will post it along!

How long should I keep a book for?

I do not want to dictate how long someone should keep hold of a book, but it would be great if each member of the book-ray could read it as quickly as possible and send it to the next person on the list in order to keep the book moving.

Finally, please do not ask to join a book-ray if you are not willing to mail books overseas.

It is not necessary to send books by air mail - send the book by surface mail if that is cheaper - but the book-ray will grind to a halt if its members are not willing to let the book follow the light, wherever that might be...  As I mentioned above, members will be added to a book-ray in chronological order according to when I receive a private message asking to join the list.  Depending on how things go, maybe I can set up book-rays which are more specific to geographic location but I am trying to keep things simple for now!

That is it! Any questions, send me a private message.  Thanks very much for participating - I really hope you enjoy the books.

BookRayGirl