History
Ron Hornbaker conceived the idea for what is now known as BookCrossing in March 2001. About four weeks later, on April 17, he launched the website, which has expanded and grown throughout the world. By April 2003 the website had over 113,000 members, and in 2004 the Concise Oxford Dictionary included the word "bookcrossing". In the same year, BookCrossing was featured as a part of a storyline in the Australian soap opera Neighbours. In the same year, BookCrossing had good start in Croatia too, thanks to Velimir Schubert. As of 23 July 2010, Bookcrossing.com had over 871,000 members, with over 6,427,000 registered books. By March 2012, membership exceeded 1,000,000 and the registered book count exceeded 8,500,000.
In July 2007 Singapore became the first official BookCrossing country in the world. In an initiative launched together with the National Library of Singapore, 2,000 locations within the country were designated as 'hotspots', similar to Official BookCrossing Zones. In 2008, BookCrossing was introduced to Abu Dhabi as part of a joint venture with the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage. In 2010. BookCrossing Zones were introduced in Serbia.
Read more about this topic: BookCrossing
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