The hugely popular Twilight Saga series has sold to date over 110 million copies.  Staggering.

On average, over 30 million trees are cut down every year to feed our appetite for books.   I’m sure the above statistic would have blown this average out of the water.

Whilst the industry is forging ahead with using recycled paper to reduce some of their environmental footprint, production of books still pack a punch in terms of impact.  Consider …

• the ink and paper used to create a book
• energy used to create / publish a book
• packaging
• transportation / carbon miles

To be purist I probably should convert to e-books only but I love the tactile nature of books (and magazines).  I’ve never been a person though who buys a lot of books and keeps the books collecting dust on a shelf.  Libraries are my friend and if I wasn’t part of a bookclub (it always seems difficult to find bookclub books in the library) I think buying books would be a rarity.

At an event the other day, the author of Collaborative Consumption (which sounds fascinating and will be ordered shortly) gave away a copy of her book and mentioned that there was a library type card within designed to encourage people to read the book, pass it on and keep track of its journey via her website.  Fantastic idea!!

And made me think, why not do this for the couple of books I have at home.  Let’s see where they go, encourage people to “pass it on” and record the book’s journey.  That way, the tree that gave life to my book so to speak lives again and perhaps encourages more people to do the same.  Every little action counts

So I’ve written a little note in a couple, and this morning will drop them off at the local coffee shop and see where they end up.  My very basic computer skills will be tested in terms of creating a page to record their journey but hopefully I will prevail.

Happy travels … (please put your details in a comment)

The Secret Live of Bees –  Starting point – Cafe Negro, Rozelle, NSW, Australia.  29/12/2010

In the Shadow of Papillon – Starting point – Cafe Negro, Rozelle, NSW, Australia.  29/12/2010