BookCrossing, a real online bookclub, is in many ways a parallel universe. It is a place where someone in the US may buy a book for a BookCrosser in Australia, without the two of them ever meeting. It is about finding books on the end of a pier, at Paddington Station, at your favourite park and unless you are on the site you don't know these books are there. People walk past them oblivious; some pick them up briefly but then leave them behind. BookCrossers know to catch these books to find out where they have been, read them and then release them.
At BookCrossing, books are registered and released with an individual tracking number. A good many drop off the radar and then turn up years later at the strangest of places. In Crossing Paths, the main character Jane disappears - for the other characters who are worried about her the clues to where she might be are on her BookCrossing bookshelf ...
