While it's true that, once we've registered, labeled, and released a
book, we do rather hope it will keep traveling, there's certainly no
time limit set by the site as to how long someone can or should keep
a BC book before passing it along (and no way to enforce that if
there were!). I'd much rather the finder felt happy to keep the book
than pressured to pass it along - and while it is nice when someone
loves a BC book so much AND values the "traveling book" idea so much
that they will release the BC copy and acquire another one to keep, I
think it's unrealistic to expect most people to do that, especially
if they're not rabidly-active BCers like some of us {wry grin}.
I do wonder why some people get so upset at the PC-status anyway;
it's not as if that means the book's never going to travel again.
Lots of people use that status just to keep others from requesting
the book for trade, and even those who mean it as "I'm keeping this
book indefinitely" will pass it along eventually - if only at the
estate sale!
I do think there ought to be different expectations if you're talking
about book-hoarding behavior among active BCers who trade with each
other vs. someone who found a BC book and joined the site to journal
it, but is not otherwise active. If that person wants to keep the
book, what's wrong with that? I'd hate to have some newbie join the
site all delighted at having found a book they'd been wanting for
ages, only to be told that they're expected to pass it along again.
Now, if I find that someone who's active on the site has been
requesting every RABCK in site and setting all of them to "PC," and
shows no indication of passing those or any other books along, then I
would certainly start to wonder what they were up to (though the
suspicions of people snagging books for sale always seem odd to me,
as most BC books are secondhand to begin with, often not in the best
of shape, and if they're as thoroughly labeled as mine are they
couldn't be resold for very much)! But some people seem to get caught
up in the hoard-the-books syndrome, and if BCers spot that it's
perfectly fair to refuse to send them any more books. But that's not
the same as someone encountering a BC book and falling in love with
it, and wanting to keep it on hand to read again and again.
Sometimes I think it's the obvious nature of the "PC" status that
bugs people. There are lots of BC books that were released or traded
and have been sitting on someone's shelf with a TBR status for
*years* now, but because that status suggests that the recipient
might pass them along when (or if!) they read them, it just doesn't
bother people as much. If that's the case, try viewing the "PC" books
as "personal collection," not "permanent" - maybe that won't be as
irksome!
-GoryDetails
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/GoryDetails
Have you told a friend today? http://bookcrossing.com/tellafriend
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