Chromaroma: a new way to look at your commute (and swap books!)

At Books for London we’re all about helping to make public transport better for everyone by giving them an opportunity to discover new books and swap their old ones. And all with almost no extra effort in their daily commute. Because making transport better is what we’re about, we’re always looking out for other organisations who are doing the same. We’ve definitely found that with our new partner, Chromaroma.

If you haven’t encountered it yet, Chromaroma makes your Oystercard, and by extension you, part of an enormous game that is travelling and commuting in London. By swiping your Oyster card in various train and tube stations you can amass points – and play against other commuters. But that’s only the beginning. As with any good game, there are lots of ways to score extra points. There are themed missions based on everything from books and movies to London’s geography and history to that reward you for visiting certain stations in a period of time (the anagram-based missions are particularly nifty). You can have a play around with an extra station here and there, or jump in properly and use your Travelcard to see the city in a whole new light. Will that extra trip to Swiss Cottage push you and your team into the lead, or is it better to head to Notting Hill Gate instead?

Credit: Melvin Heng (Creative Commons BY NC ND)

Collections are another way Chromaroma can reward you with more points, and this is where Books for London comes in. Collections are groups of stations that are all based around a common theme – for example, all the stations that have ‘Bridge’ or ‘Gate’ in their name, or all the stations on a specific line. By visiting all these stations you get a huge points bonus, and (hopefully) a prized place on the leaderboard. Chromaroma has now created a Collection just for us – the Book Worm Hole, meaning that you can now head all around London and collect points and swap your books at the same time! All the stations that have book swaps are present and accounted for, and you can get a shiny extra 250 points for visiting all of them.

So if you see the tube a bit differently to everyone else, and you love books,  sign up to Chromaroma and start swapping books, and collecting points. You never know where it might take you in this great city of ours!