World Book Night Comes to Appley Green!!

 

OK, so Appley Green is not real. I should know this!

 

World Book Night is real, however, and coming very close to Appley Green! Just to remind you, this is an initiative that involves authors, publishers, agents, booksellers, librarians and above all readers!  It is on Tuesday 23 April - wow! four days away, as I write this.

On their website they say, ‘World Book Night is a celebration of reading and books which sees tens of thousands of passionate volunteers gift specially chosen and printed WBN books in their communities to share their love of reading.’  I am one such volunteer, full of passion, needless to say; so on Tuesday I shall be giving away 20 brand new special editions of my first choice from the list of books offered by World Book Night. It was difficult to choose from a wonderful selection, but I was delighted to be allocated my top choice, a novel called The Road Home by Rose Tremain.

Of course, this book is just ‘up my street’ and please forgive the pun if you can find it in your heart; about an Eastern European immigrant’s struggle to make his way (yes it’s a ‘journey’) in London. It offers a new perspective of ourselves and I love this book. I really hope I transmit my enthusiasm to others and do it justice.

A snippet from the WBN website, declaring that reading can go beyond pleasure:

 ‘Reading changes lives, improves employability, social interaction, enfranchisement and can have an effect on mental health and happiness.’ 

I could not put it better myself, nor agree more!

Next week I will tell you about where I am going – or rather where I went!  With pictures! I wonder who I will meet? Aren't you excited? Of course you are!

Book givers are charged with the mission to approach people who perhaps do not read books regularly. I say ‘perhaps’ for how can you possibly tell before speaking to someone! (unless you catch them at it - reading, that is.) What does a non-reading person look like? What would be their identifying features? Tell me!

It's 'horses for courses' as they say and some could not live without Grand Prix races or playing Bridge; but I genuinely cannot imagine living without books. They are, and always have been, such an important part of my life; now in retirement, even more so. I do what used to be called ‘Books on Wheels’ rebranded as ‘Library Direct Home Service’ that I consistently fail to remember; the words just keep re-arranging themselves in a different order, but I guess I need to stare at the title a little longer to fix it. I belong to a book club. I have kept a list of books read over the past ten years or so, with a brief comment about each one. I recommend this to booklovers! As the years roll by it is quite enlightening to look back and see what you have read and whether you enjoyed it and, if so, why. Now, I sometimes pop a little review up on Goodreads, go to Book Festivals, and, of course,  try to find time to write books too, the greatest joy of all.

World Book Night, The Company

‘Each year we recruit 20,000 volunteers to hand out 20 copies of their favourite book from our list to members of their community who don’t regularly read. By enlisting thousands of passionate book lovers around the country World Book Night reaches out to the millions of people in the UK who have yet to fall in love with reading in the hope that we can start them on their reading journey. In addition World Book Night distributes half a million books directly to the hardest to reach potential readers in prisons, care homes, hospitals, sheltered, supported and social housing, the homeless and through partner charities working throughout the UK. World Book Night is about giving books and encouraging reading in those who don’t regularly do so. But it is also about more than that: it’s about people, communities and connections, about reaching out to others and touching lives in the simplest of ways, through the sharing of stories.’   http://www.worldbooknight.org/

Let me know of any good World Book Night (WBN) events down your way!

Added after the event - here in Deepcut Village Hall
See how they clutch their books!!