World Book Night is over with..... well, not quite as the reverberations continue. Received a lovely email from Rachel at Blackwell Books about the book I'd given her and in return received a recommendation for an interesting read. I'll definitely try out.
As there are 26 letters in the alphabet and I had 48 books, there were some left to distribute in other ways. I put a pile of them on the wall outside my front door on Sunday, with a note telling people to help themselves, courtesy of World Book Night. Sort of like an honesty box - but without the need for any monetary recompense. On my return, one copy remained.
Apparently, I'm big in Iran! Two viewings of my blog there - I salute you my Iranian peeps.
A special delivery
...and so it begins!
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Monday, 7 March 2011
X marks the spot...
Finished off my book giving with the letters M, X and B. Sounds like a script for Sesame Street!
M - The young woman at the Great North Museum quite literaly screamed with delight at being part of World Book Night. I left with a huge smile.
X - In the absence of locating any xenophobes or xylophonists, the profession receiving a free book was always going to be an X-ray technician. It was actually the very first career I thought of giving Cloud Atlas to, when I conceived my Herculean challenge. There is a danger that we sometimes focus on a spot of cleverness, without giving some thought to the people who populate our journeys. Walking through the RVI Xray wing, brought me back to earth - ticking off your A to Z list didn't feel quite so good as you walk past a seriously injured road crash victim and a young lad slumped in a wheelchair waiting to receive life changing results. Still, when they are recovered I'm sure that they do enjoy a good read as much as anyone. Lesson to self - hubris isn't too far away, if you don't have a spot of humility.
B - I started my journey at Blackwell's books and returned there to hand out the last free book. Not exactly returning to port after circumnavigating the globe, but a lovely finish handing Cloud Atlas to the lady from Blackwell's who had shown such interest in the venture. A wonderful few days.
M - The young woman at the Great North Museum quite literaly screamed with delight at being part of World Book Night. I left with a huge smile.
X - In the absence of locating any xenophobes or xylophonists, the profession receiving a free book was always going to be an X-ray technician. It was actually the very first career I thought of giving Cloud Atlas to, when I conceived my Herculean challenge. There is a danger that we sometimes focus on a spot of cleverness, without giving some thought to the people who populate our journeys. Walking through the RVI Xray wing, brought me back to earth - ticking off your A to Z list didn't feel quite so good as you walk past a seriously injured road crash victim and a young lad slumped in a wheelchair waiting to receive life changing results. Still, when they are recovered I'm sure that they do enjoy a good read as much as anyone. Lesson to self - hubris isn't too far away, if you don't have a spot of humility.
B - I started my journey at Blackwell's books and returned there to hand out the last free book. Not exactly returning to port after circumnavigating the globe, but a lovely finish handing Cloud Atlas to the lady from Blackwell's who had shown such interest in the venture. A wonderful few days.
Saturday, 5 March 2011
Some kind of wonderful.....
A marvellous day handing out books using my patented A to Z of careers thingymajig. As I filled up my car with the books, a royal mail van drove into the street. All I could think was that a letter P had fallen into my lap, within ten seconds of commencing my quest!!! The postman was somewhat bemused as I thrust Cloud Atlas into his hand and and garbled an explaination to him.
Responses, from people who received books during the day, ranged from utter bewilderment to absolute delight. I visited an Ice cream seller in Seaton Delaval, a wonderfully enthusastic book fan and Chocolatier in Tynemouth, a lovely Jeweller in Whitley Bay and so on and so forth.
As I'd picked an approach that involved meeting people in their place of work, I felt a bit guilty that I was taking up their time... so in a few shops I made some purchases to ease my guilt (or awkwardness). World Book Night has cost me a fortune.... a bottle of Chablis, luxury handmade chocolates, cinder toffee, a box of paracetemol, scones. (the chocolates were fab by the way - I can recommend Gareth James, Chocolatier of Tynemouth!
Still have a few letters to finish the alphabetic approach off.
Responses, from people who received books during the day, ranged from utter bewilderment to absolute delight. I visited an Ice cream seller in Seaton Delaval, a wonderfully enthusastic book fan and Chocolatier in Tynemouth, a lovely Jeweller in Whitley Bay and so on and so forth.
As I'd picked an approach that involved meeting people in their place of work, I felt a bit guilty that I was taking up their time... so in a few shops I made some purchases to ease my guilt (or awkwardness). World Book Night has cost me a fortune.... a bottle of Chablis, luxury handmade chocolates, cinder toffee, a box of paracetemol, scones. (the chocolates were fab by the way - I can recommend Gareth James, Chocolatier of Tynemouth!
Still have a few letters to finish the alphabetic approach off.
Friday, 4 March 2011
Don't anyone dare call them radiographers...
I've just had a flashback to being 13 years old and suffering writers cramp from scribbling "I must not close the window on Bryan Queen's back" 200 times with a leaky Bic, in Mr Montgomery's detention class. The reason - I've just sat and written the ten digit numbers into 48 copies of Cloud Atlas. In this technologically advanced world of mobile phones, netbooks, laptops and touchscreen apps, we seldom sit down and write with pen on paper. As well as reminding people of the joys of reading, World Book Night may remind us of the joys of ink and fully utilised opposable thumbs.
The plan in all of its finalised glory
A - antique Dealer B - bookseller (if that's not too ironic) C - chocolatier D - dentist E - estate agent F - florist G - graphic designer H - herbalist I - ice cream seller J - jeweller K - kennel worker L - local government officer M - museum guide N - nurse O - optician P - pharmacist Q - quantity surveyor R - radio presenter S - social worker T - tailor U - undergraduate V - vet (canine, rather than vietnam) W - wine merchant X - X-Ray technician (don't anyone dare call them radiographers!!) Y - youth worker Z - Zizzis waiter.
The plan in all of its finalised glory
A - antique Dealer B - bookseller (if that's not too ironic) C - chocolatier D - dentist E - estate agent F - florist G - graphic designer H - herbalist I - ice cream seller J - jeweller K - kennel worker L - local government officer M - museum guide N - nurse O - optician P - pharmacist Q - quantity surveyor R - radio presenter S - social worker T - tailor U - undergraduate V - vet (canine, rather than vietnam) W - wine merchant X - X-Ray technician (don't anyone dare call them radiographers!!) Y - youth worker Z - Zizzis waiter.
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
The whys and the wherefores
World Book Night - I first heard about World Book Night on BBC2's The Culture Show. It is a wonderful idea; to give away 1,000,000 free books via 20,000 givers. I have always loved to read, the power of the written word to inform, to shock, to make us cry, to make us laugh, to transport us to exotic worlds. I am also taken with the sharing of books, either left on a bus seat for someone else to discover or lovingly wrapped and given to someone close to you as a present.
Cloud Atlas - The book I have chosen to distribute is David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. It has been a long time since I have read a book which surprised me. It is written in a number of different styles and has an unusual structure. I hope that everyone who reads it will enjoy it - I think that's unlikely, its quite stylised and may not be to everyones taste. However, if a book gets people thinking, or trying different novels and writers, that is a good enough reason to share our literature.
The Plan - I had thought of giving books to the friends of my friends, but that became logistically complex. I also thought of going to places where the initial letter spelt out Cloud Atlas; Corbridge, Lynemouth, Ovingham.. etc. This felt too easy, though would have provided me with a nice drive through the Northumberland Countryside. I've decided to give out the books using an A to Z of professions; give one copy to an Accountant, one to a Baker, etc, etc.
The reason for this - I wanted to capture a part of the wide range of people who read books - for those of us who love to read, we come from all sorts of backgrounds. We are all sorts of sizes and shapes. We have different views. We come from all walks of life and all sorts of professions.
Obviously, the letter Z provides a challenge. Let me know if you know any zoologists in Newcastle. The remainder, I'll split and hand out to complete strangers, and friends and family. I'm going to include a note with a link to this blog in the books I hand out, asking people to post some thoughts on Cloud Atlas, World Book Night or reading in general. It should be interesting.
Cloud Atlas - The book I have chosen to distribute is David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. It has been a long time since I have read a book which surprised me. It is written in a number of different styles and has an unusual structure. I hope that everyone who reads it will enjoy it - I think that's unlikely, its quite stylised and may not be to everyones taste. However, if a book gets people thinking, or trying different novels and writers, that is a good enough reason to share our literature.
The Plan - I had thought of giving books to the friends of my friends, but that became logistically complex. I also thought of going to places where the initial letter spelt out Cloud Atlas; Corbridge, Lynemouth, Ovingham.. etc. This felt too easy, though would have provided me with a nice drive through the Northumberland Countryside. I've decided to give out the books using an A to Z of professions; give one copy to an Accountant, one to a Baker, etc, etc.
The reason for this - I wanted to capture a part of the wide range of people who read books - for those of us who love to read, we come from all sorts of backgrounds. We are all sorts of sizes and shapes. We have different views. We come from all walks of life and all sorts of professions.
Obviously, the letter Z provides a challenge. Let me know if you know any zoologists in Newcastle. The remainder, I'll split and hand out to complete strangers, and friends and family. I'm going to include a note with a link to this blog in the books I hand out, asking people to post some thoughts on Cloud Atlas, World Book Night or reading in general. It should be interesting.
Oh, before I forget!
Coming soon
- Why World Book Night?
- Why Cloud Atlas?
- Which fantastically creative/seemed like a good idea at the time will be used to distribute said book?
- My battles with the error message, "Quicktime cannot find the wordpress file, as it is a file Quicktime doesn't understand."
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