It's the latest craze and it's quite literally sweeping across the country.

It's fun, it's free and it's completely random.

Interested? Then read on.

So what is Book Crossing? It's a book club that has no home, a reading group that knows no geographical boundary and it's a VIP pass into the 21st century's first global literary community.

This is how it works. Books are being deposited and collected by people just like you in public places all over the world.

Sitting quietly on park benches, loitering in phone boxes, lurking in pubs and hanging out in coffee shops. In fact no public place is safe.

Inside each book is a message telling you, the finder - and new temporary owner - what your responsibilities are. At this point you've got two choices. You can either call it quits, leave the book where it is and forget all about it or you can pick it up and join in this crazy scheme that aims to make the whole world a library.

So, each book has more than just the story inside to tell. Each one is a little traveller - think Lassie or The Littlest Hobo - with its own unique journey and history.

As well as happening on a free book and a chance to read something you might not usually choose to read it's equally intriguing to discover where your book's been, where it came from originally and what your predecessors thought of it.

There should be a message inside each book explaining how you map the book's history.

This is where the Internet comes in...

There's an easy code to remember. Heard about the Three Rs? Well here's the new meaning...

Read it, Register it and Release it.

We've released a number of books into the wilds of Derby and Derbyshire. If you pick up one of our books all we ask is when you've finished reading it you log on, tell us where you found the book, whether it was any good and give us a clue as to where you left it. Don't feel that you have to leave it in our county or even country, these books have the right to roam.

Serendipity is a charming and sometimes life changing experience. We hope that these books land like happy accidents into your lives and that if nothing else you get a good read and a bit of a kick out of it.

Your comments on this story

There are no comments yet Add your comments Your name: Add your comments here:

Read the Rules of Posting (Opens in a new window)