[barbs]

I think a lot of people experience a strange sort of complementary relationship between travelling and reading. Perhaps it's something to do with the notion of exploring new territory, both physically and imaginatively. This might be why you see lots of "shared bookshelves" in hostels around the world.

You might be interested in BookCrossing.com. You write a note inside a book and leave it in another country, and it's encouraged to read the book, and then take it somewhere else, and keep track of its progress on the website. I'm not sure how successful it is in practice generally, though. I left a book once in Ho Chi Minh city and it got as far as Bangkok, but I don't know where it is now.