by John Mikhail M. Lim (H3D), XS Book Club Member
and Mr. James Nicolay, XS Book Club Moderator

Last October 15, 2008, during the celebration of the Teen Read Week, the Xavier Book Club launched the first ever BookCrossing, inspired by the worldwide movement which encourages the readers to “liberate” their favorite books in order to be appreciated by other readers.

As applied in a school setting, the Xavier Book Club aimed to provide a venue for the students to share their love of reading by making available their favorite books to be enjoyed by fellow readers in Xavier School. Aside from sharing their books in the BookCrossing program, they could also contribute books which will be donated to the HS Library or to other schools or learning institutions who may need these learning materials.

The accumulation of books started from October 9 to October 15. There were around 200 books which were accepted as BookCrossing materials, and around the same number of books were considered as donations.

On the BookCrossing Day itself, while the Book Club was frantically prepping up the Special Classroom at the 1st floor of the High School building for BookCrossing, many high school students and teachers, right after ECA, were all lined up in front of the doors, anxiously waiting to be able to get their “new” books. The Book Club finally opened the doors to BookCrossing at around 3pm, and the students just went wild looking for the books they wanted. Some opted for fantasy novels, while others desperately looked for mangas and books they could give to their siblings.

A lot of students were successful at looking for the books they wanted. Some were so successful that they were even able to get as many as 12 books without having finished all the tickets they had accumulated for BookCrossing!

At around 4PM, the Book Club officially put Xavier BookCrossing to a close. With the remaining handful of books left, Xavier’s very first BookCrossing, indeed, was a success! With Xaverians giving up their books for others to read, they showed that Xaverians really do know how to share the love!