文字难度：★★★
Step One: Read a book. Step Two: Log on to the Web site (www.bookcrossing.com) and get a screen name and a number that will be used to track your book. Place the number as well as the Web site address inside the book so that someone can contact you, via the Web site, once they've found your particular book.
第一步：读一本书。第二步：登录网站（www.bookcrossing.com），获取一个用户名和一个编号，以便用来追踪你的图书去向。将该编号以及网址附在图书里，这样一旦有人发现了你这本书之后，他就能够通过该网站与你取得联系。
Now the fun part: releasing. “It's like reverse 1)shoplifting,” said 2)Ron Hornbaker, the founder of the Web site, “You have to be 3)sneaky because if a store manager or an employee sees you, they're likely to run up to you shouting, ‘Hey, you forgot your book.'” You can “release” your book in a place that's convenient—a park bench, a table at the local Starbucks—or place it more 4)artfully: diet books in ice cream 5)freezers, 6)Fast Food Nation at McDonald's and, as one 7)crosser did, books by 8)Carl Sagan at the local 9)Baptist church. Jeanne Lubben, 43, a 10)veteran bookcrosser from Oakland, said she read about a woman who left11)Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face outside a plastic surgery clinic in Hawaii.
接下来的这部分就比较有意思了：放漂。“做法跟在商店里行窃刚好相反，”网站的创始人罗恩·霍恩贝克说，“你必须要‘偷偷摸摸’地去做，因为如果某个商店经理或职员发现了你，他们很可能会边跑边向你叫道：‘嘿，你忘了拿你的书。’”你可以把你的图书“放漂”在某个方便顺手的地方——某张公园长凳上，本地星巴克咖啡厅的某张桌子 上——或是某个颇为巧妙的地方：把关于饮食的书籍放在雪糕冰柜旁，把《快餐帝国》一书放在麦当劳里，还有，就像一位放漂者那样，把美国太空总署科学家卡尔·萨根的著作放在当地的浸礼会教堂里。珍妮·鲁本，现年43岁，是美国加州奥克兰市一位经验丰富的图书放漂者，她说她曾经读到过这样的故事—— 一位女士把露西·格里利的《脸的自传》留在了夏威夷一家整形外科诊所的门外。
Finally, Step Four and the dream of every bookcrosser: to have the book “caught”; that is, found by someone who has logged onto the Web site, written comments about the book and then gone on to release the book to someone else.
最后，第四步，也是每个图书放漂者的梦想：让人“拾获”那本书；也就是说，被某个人发现以后，他也登陆这个网站，写下关于这本书的评论，然后继续在某个地方将这本书放漂。
“It's the electronic equivalent of the little boy putting a note in a bottle,” said Jaeger37, the screen name of a successful bookcrosser from Livingston. Bibi Pasternack of Montclair agrees. “I think the idea of finding a free book where you least expect it is totally charming,” Ms. Pasternack said. “Imagine the delight of someone who found Who Moved My Cheese? in the 12)King's 13)deli department?”
“这就相当于是小男孩将纸条塞进漂流瓶的电子版，”来自新泽西州利文斯通，用户名为Jaeger37的一位成功的图书放漂者说道。来自新泽西州蒙特克莱尔的比比·帕斯特纳克也同意这个说法。“我认为，这个让人在最意想不到的地方发现了一本免费图书的主意真是棒极了，”帕斯特纳克女士说道，“想象一下，要是某个人在金库伦百货商店的熟食部里发现了《谁动了我的奶酪？》这本书，他该有多么开心啊！”
The highlight, of course, is seeing how far your book has travelled. A single copy of 14)Nick Hornby's About a Boy moved from La Jolla, Calif., to Munich (the bookcrosser 15)playfully left it in front of a theater where the film version was showing), and then on to a restaurant in a fishing village in northern 16)Crete—all between Aug. 30th and Oct. 22nd, when it was found by a visitor from England who promised to continue it on its journey.
最精彩的部分，当然了，就是看看你的图书“漂流”了多远。有一本尼克·霍恩比的《关于一个男孩》从加利福尼亚州的拉霍亚市“漂”到了德国慕尼黑（这个图书放漂者开玩笑地将它留在了一家电影院的门口，电影院里当时正在播放改编自此书的电影），接着又去到了克里特岛北部渔村的一家餐厅里——“漂流”时间是从8月30日至10月22日，之后它被一位来自英格兰的游客发现了，他承诺说将会让它继续它的旅程。