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World Book Night USA -- Did Anyone Else Participate?

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fivecats

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 12, 2012
272
1
0
Outside Raleighwood
Tonight (April 23, 2012) is World Book Night in the US. It's a great, free book giveaway is put on by WorldBookNight.org and is meant to get books in the hands of non-readers or low readers.

Last year was the first World Book Night and was held in the UK. This year the idea spread to the US as well.

The foundation offers 30 books to choose from. The public is invited to write in and request to be a volunteer, stating which book they'd like to give away and why. If selected, a box of those books (special World Book Night editions) are sent to a local bookstore for pick up. There's no cost to anyone involved in the giveaway -- not the volunteers, not the bookstores, not the recipients.

How cool is that?

I asked to give out copies of Kate DiCamillo's "Because of Winn-Dixie." As a former children's librarian I wanted to be able to put an emotionally layered, sometimes funny, and well-written book into a kid's hands. Tonight I was able to do that for 24 kids. It was a great adventure.

I was wondering if anyone else here on GM was involved in this project as well.
 

ChadK

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 16, 2012
204
1
0
Commerce City, CO
It sounds like an awesome thing. Had I known about it before now, I would have loved to have taken part. Ah well, there's always next year.
 

caffeine211

NewBee
Registered Member
May 23, 2011
125
2
0
Philadelphia, PA
It sounds like an awesome project! But I sadly had no idea about it...

I would have recommended Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. It is by far my favorite book. It might not be the most timeless or universal piece but his sentences are absolutely lyrical through out the book...
 

Chevette Girl

All around BAD EXAMPLE
Moderator
Lifetime GotMead Patron
Apr 27, 2010
8,443
53
48
Ottawa, ON
That sounds like a great idea. I'd recommend Gordon Korman's "Camp I Wanna Go Home", one of the few books I read as a kid that still makes me laugh out loud as an adult. That, or Bradbury's "Dandelion Wine", which I found to be the most charming book I think I've ever read, and closer to a classic than Korman.

...I'll leave Gatsby to someone (anyone!) else to read, I hated it as much as I hated reading "Bonfire of the Vanities", "Death of A Salesman" and "Gone with the Wind"... Although I have been enjoying "A Tale of Two Cities"... Oh, well, no accounting for taste. Especially mine. ;D
 

Vandall

Worker Bee
Registered Member
Jan 13, 2012
84
2
8
Clinton Township Michigan
I love to read and think that this is a great idea to inspire others to read, or to read more. I would have to say that "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand is the greatest book ever written since the Bible. If we could get everyone to read it, the world wouldn't be so screwed up right now.
 

ZwolfUpir

NewBee
Registered Member
Jun 28, 2011
173
3
0
Manchester NH
I participated... or rather will participate... Oncology isn't open at night, so I am heading down today to bring "Enders Game" to them and elsewhere about the Hospital.
 
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