How was everyone's World Book Night? Did you go to any events or give books or just read anything nice for it?
As I said in my post at the beginning of the week I was lucky enough to be selected to give away Malorie Blackman's Noughts and Crosses as well as get tickets to the London flagshop event.
It was amazing.
I really enjoyed the giving process to start with - rather than hand them out to people, I decided to leave them in places to be found. I liked the idea that someone's curiosity at seeing a book would make them want to pick it up and read it. I pulled in a few accomplices and scattered my books around various parts of London, here are some of the places they ended up:
And even better - I put my twitter in the books and someone tweeted me when they found my book!
The event itself at the South Bank Centre was great too - it was packed out with people and there was a fantastic array of authors - WBN and otherwise - reading extracts from their books. Some of my favourites were Mark Haddon reading from 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time', David Nicholls reading from Casino Royale and Graeme Simsion read from his new book 'The Rosie Project'. This last one, in particular, was amazing. 'The Rosie Project' has been on my radar for a while and I've read some reviews that made me interested, but having Graeme himself read from it, it has jumped straight to the top of my TBR pile.
The event as a whole was a great reminder that reading and story-telling really do bring books to life - although they're fantastic on the page, it is nothing compared to having them brough to life out loud, especially by the author themselves.
Do you have any World Book Night stories to share? I want to hear them!
Ali from the Mira Ink offices shared his story with us:
‘This year for World Book Night I was lucky enough to get The Reader by Bernhard Schlink to give out. I decided to put a book in every pigeon hole in the building where I live to give my neighbours a nice surprise when they check their post. I gave the rest out to some slightly bemused looking commuters on my way to work! Working in publishing, I sometimes take it for granted that everybody reads lots of books all the time, but in reality most people don’t. I think WBN is a great opportunity to encourage people who wouldn’t usually to pick up a book and see what’s inside. Next time I bump into one of my neighbours coming in or out of the building, I’ll definitely be asking them what they thought of The Reader. Maybe we can even start a book club!’
Ali from the Mira Ink office
Leave us comments below telling us all about your World Book Night, or even something you would like to do in the future.
Now to wait until World Book Night 2014!
Aww that is such a brilliant idea!
ReplyDeleteI was lucky enough to be a giver as well, giving away copies of Damage by Josephine Hart. Myself and a few members of Swansea University English Society clubbed together and made a stall on campus, giving copies of Damange and The Island by Victoria Hislop to gobsmacked students (free books?!). We also brought in and received donations of second hand books in order to raise money for Books for Africa.
Such an amazing day and I can't wait for next year!
Love the idea of leaving them out and about, i'll have to remember that for next year if i'm chosen again,
ReplyDeleteI gave out Noughts and Crosses too, i took them to my Zumba class, so many of the women their said they enjoyed reading but was never sure what to pick or didn't have time, so they were very grateful for a free gift. I did the same last year and some of them came back and said I'd got them hooked and they had rediscovered their love of books.
It's such a great program. :)