Today was going to be a post about a handbag until I got an email from World Book Night letting me know there were only two weeks left to get your application to be a giver in for this year.
I have already applied for this year, but I thought maybe some of you might not have thought about participating yourself and so I thought I would explain things a little.
World Book Night is basically where hundreds of thousands of volunteers give away free books to the public. You apply to be a giver and are sent your chosen book and then on April 23rd you wander around your designated area handing them out to people. Your designated area could be a school, a town centre, or to your book group. The idea is simply to get people reading.
The process is really simple, you pick three books from the list of that years books and say where and why you would like to give them out to people. They are completely free and having experience of doing this for the past few years I can honestly say that most people feel so pleased to have received something for nothing.
I have to admit that I usually go a bit further and add bookplates and bookmarks for the local library with mine, and i generally cover the whole town centre just asking people if they would like a free book.
If you don't have the time to dedicate to being a full on book giver, you can also this year choose to be a community book giver, which is where you pledge to give at least one book to someone who wouldn't normally read. You have to supply the book yourself, so it is more of a promise than an application, but definitely worth it if you have someone in mind.
It is such a rewarding activity, and if you are a lover of reading I highly recommend it!
You can find out more about the cause here, see the list of the 2014 books and why they were chosen here, and become a giver here.
Let me know if you do apply, I would love to know what your top choices were. I am hoping to get Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovich as I have recently read it and absolutely loved it!