Pokémon Go for Book Lovers

Gotta Read ’em All

Unless you have holidayed on Mars for the last month or so you cannot fail to have heard of the latest mobile app craze Pokémon Go. In this augmented reality game people hunt Pocket Monsters, capture them, train them, battle against other people’s Pokemon, capture gyms and generally run around the place like a bunch of 4 year olds high on blue pop; it’s brilliant!

Now a primary school headmaster in Belgium has developed a version of the game for lovers of literature and it has become a huge success attracting tens of thousands of followers in the few weeks since its launch. However rather than wandering around your local area with your mobile phone in front of you Aveline Gregoire’s version of the game which is called “Chasseurs de livres” (“Book hunters”) is played through a Facebook group of the same name.

Players will hide a book and then leave hints and photographic clues as to where it is and other players hunt it down; many times after reading the ‘captured’ book the player will then ‘release it back into the wild’ for another player to capture.

Speaking to Reuters Aveline said “While I was arranging my library, I realized I didn’t have enough space for all my books. Having played Pokémon Go with my kids, I had the idea of releasing the books into nature,”

With hidden gems ranging from picture books for toddlers to Stephen King tomes being hidden across towns, villages and scattered across the countryside, wrapped in plastic to protect them from the elements and more and more people joining the Facebook group everyday Aveline is now considering building an App for her game. It may have started out as a bit of fun for her own children but Chasseurs de livres has now become part of many families’ daily ritual including the Detournay family from the town of Baudour in southern Belgium who said that the game is now part of their daily walks. “My daughter said it’s like hunting for Easter eggs, only with books,” said book hunter Jessica Detournay. On this particular walk they had hidden four books and ‘captured’ one and upon returning home they received notification from Facebook that two of their books had already been captured.

Let’s hope this takes off across the globe and we readers can have our own version of (a Geocaching style) Pokémon Go but with real books.