Tram-Travelling Novels: ‘Librichegirano’

Tram-Travelling Novels: ‘Librichegirano’

A new 'book crossing' project started by an Argentine-turned-Florentine psychotherapist seeks to use the power of social media and public transportation to breathe new life into forgotten books.   The project, dubbed Librichegirano, is an open invitation for readers to 'liberate' dusty old books by leaving them in

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Tue 20 Oct 2015 2:00 PM

A new ‘book crossing’ project started by an Argentine-turned-Florentine psychotherapist seeks to use the power of social media and public transportation to breathe new life into forgotten books.

 

The project, dubbed Librichegirano, is an open invitation for readers to ‘liberate’ dusty old books by leaving them in public places with a message inside the front cover: ‘Questo libro sta girando. Leggilo, poi passalo ad uno sconosciuto’ (‘This book is on the move. Read it, then pass it on to a stranger’). By sending the group a message—via Facebook or the official Librichegirano blog—when a book is liberated or found, Librichegirano’s growing online community can trace its progress across Italy and beyond.

 

The project’s founder, Pamela, launched the initiative one April morning on her usual commute to work, traveling by tram with her latest read—Joe R. Lonsdale’s Cold in July. She made a spontaneous decision, writing a message on the inside cover and positioning it on a seat nearby. A little while later, a woman picked it up and, Pamela remembers, smiled as she read the message inside, taking the book with her. That night Pamela created the Facebook page, adding the blog a few months later, and Librichegirano was born.

 

Pamela and her team of four have since ‘liberated’ about ten books, from The Picture of Dorian Gray to A Perfect Stranger by Danielle Steele, usually leaving them on the tram for curious travelers to find. ‘A book abandoned in a cellar or library is destined to die,’ Pamela says. ‘With this project, I hope to give books a second life.’

 

 

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