Sonja Milbourn will never forget the day she walked in to her neighborhood pizza joint, only to see a waitress charging back at her.

“She chased me down because she wanted to thank me for the book I left there,” the college professor said with a chuckle.

A week earlier, Milbourn and her 9 year-old daughter had slyly dropped a tattered copy of “Dead Man Walking” on a table there, hoping another bookworm would pick it up and join in the game.

She did, and so the journey begins.

Part book club, part behavioral study, part message-in-a-bottle experiment, BookCrossing.com connects bibliophiles across the globe, harnessing the Internet to make all the world a library.

The site’s members live by the “Three R’s” mantra. They read, register and release.

After enjoying a good book, members register their find on the site and get a unique BookCrossing ID number (BCID). After marking the book with a catchy label, they release it “into the wild.”

Books “in the wild” land on park benches, airplane seats, in coffee shops and historic sites. Site creator Ron Hornbaker said he’s also seen pictures of books left in the hands of statues.

Hornbaker said that he was transfixed when he stumbled upon a Web site tracking disposable cameras in March 2001. Already familiar with other sites of the sort, the cogs in his head started churning as he tried to find a way to reinvent the concept.

Hornbaker said he’s had an insatiable appetite for good books since baby sitter Grandma Keeler and his parents, both teachers, introduced him to the written word as a child.

Reading hasn’t taken a backseat yet. The 36-year-old is the president of a software development company in Kansas City, Mo., and he’s never taken a computer class. He absorbed the information from books and taught himself.

And so it was only natural that Hornbaker engineer a way for literature lovers to share in his passion.

It was slow at first, Hornbaker said. When the site celebrated its first anniversary in March 2002, only 1,200 people had signed up to read and release.

He didn’t have to wait much longer, though. National Public Radio caught wind of the site, and after running an interview with the site creator, 1,600 members signed up in one day, with 3,000 more joining in the next week.

Today, almost 11,000 readers in 35 countries have given away more than 26,000 books. BookCrossing.com memberships are free, and all information is kept private.

The site’s leader board features top releasers and top reads. One BookCrossing.com member has registered 1,800 books.

Teachers are also finding the site a handy way to encourage children to read.

“I think it’s a great activity to start your child in. Not only does it teach them an appreciation of literature and books, but an appreciation of sharing their things with the world,” Hornbaker said.