Bookcrossing and charity donations: a moral dilemma
Just posted to www.bookcrossing.com. The book in question is Vladimir Nabokov's King, Queen, Knave, and I have just registered it as found:
“The previous reader dropped this off in an Oxfam book skip.
Having had the rare excitement of a very specific release alert pertaining to our neighbourhood, we couldn't resist seeing if it could be retrieved from the book skip. It could.
Well, that left a bit of a moral dilemma. On the one hand, why should Oxfam be deprived of its donated book? On the other hand, the book did go out with release notes.
We will therefore, be pleased to either return it after reading (think of this as a particularly liberal, if somewhat secretive, lending library) or to make a donation to Oxfam should we find someone else who wants to read it.
Apologies for the slightly unconventional crossover – but, hey, what would Bookcrossing be without the odd unusual encounter?
I'm, er, a bit concerned about reading it, however given my knowledge of Nabokov's other work and the glowing review it gets above.
Still, I'm prepared to give it a go. It's rare enough to find a book 'in the wild' without actually being fussy about the title as well…”
Well, my fellow Bookcrossing communitarians, what would you do? Retrieve the book, or leave it for the charity to collect? Watch for other Bookcrossers and berate them when they tried to find it?
We retrieved it, with a slightly uneasy conscience.
Your answers below…?
2008 update: no-one had the slightest problem with the idea of these being recovered, in the event…