Malaysian Bookcrossers featured in The Star

The Malaysian Bookcrossers were featured in the Star newspaper today in the Lifestyle section. Click here to read the entire article. You'll have to scroll down a little to see the part about M'sian BCers.

It's a terrible picture of me. =( And they kinda misrepresented me, because while I sort of did receive boxes of books from one bookcrosser overseas (Thank you so much, Eskielover), the article made it seem like it was just that one BCer who had so many books to send to me, when it was actually a whole bunch of really generous BCers who sent the books to Eskielover to send to me!

I'm really glad BC was featured in the Star, and I hope we get a lot of new members in BC after today's feature, but I hope that they don't join just because they want to get 'boxes of books' from BCers overseas. *frowns* I guess I'm a little ambivilent about the whole article. I'm glad that BC got some publicity, but I'm not sure the idea of BC came across well.

Bookcrossing was featured in the 'Swap it' section of the article, but that's not really the point of BC. The article did mention the concept was to leave books 'in the wild' but that it doesn't really work in Malaysia, which is disappointing, because if Bookcrossing doesn't work in Malaysia, then why join BC?

Why not just have a regular bookclub where member swap books with one another?

Personally, I seldom leave books in the wild, unless I go on vacation overseas or something, but the special thing about BC for me, is not just the swapping books(bookrings,bookrays,etc.), it is the community. A whole community of international booklovers where you learn so much about different people in different cultures who share a love for books! I love the *people* in BC, not the leaving books in the wild.

LOL! Which of course, isn't really the point of BC either. But for me, the people are actually the best part of BC. And an article focusing on Malaysian readers in a Malaysian community and Malaysian situations isn't really going to focus on the delightful diversity of the BC community, is it? =(

What do you guys think of the article?