I won’t kid myself and say it’s going well, but this year I decided to test myself with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The challenge is to write 50,000 words (a short novel) in the month of November. It’s a month long celebration of writing, depending on how many words you’re into the month at the moment.

To inspire and keep myself focused on the genre and style I’m going for I’ve begun reading books along the same lines. Other than the local secondhand bookstore, my favourite place to find books is BookCrossing. There you can look up the authors who write in the genre and see what everyone has been reading. Which were the popular books. What did people comment, if anything. Also, where can you pick them up (literally) for free. BookCrossing is all about free books and reading.

If you want to get together with other BookCrossing people, exchange books, discuss what you’ve been reading or just talk with someone outside of the computerized world, there are many BookCrossing groups. If you maintain a group, there is even a group for BookCrossing group organizers!

Here are some to get you started.

Ontario BookCrossing Group
Little Rock/Central Arkansas Bookcrossers
BookCrossing - Olympia, Washington
Devon England BookCrossers
BookCrossing-Reno
Bookcrossing Meetup Group - Northants and MK (England)
Glasgow BookCrossing

Tags: national novel writing month, nanowrimo, bookcrossing, bookcrossers, writing