I am participating in the Blogging From A-Z Challenge. Each day in April (except Sunday), I will post topic themes that begin with the letters of the alphabet, from A-Z. Today's letter is W.
This is the second year I've participated in World Book Night. For those who aren't familiar w/ WBN, it's an annual event that takes place on April 23rd. Folks can sign up as book givers and are given 20 copies of their chosen book to distribute to light-and-non-readers in their community.
Both last year & this year I gave all 20 copies to a local non-profit organization called Maslow Project. Maslow helps homeless youth in my community with various needs from food and toiletries, to help finishing school and gaining job skills to become self sufficient. Many of the kids that utilize Maslow's services are struggling in school because their personal lives are so tumultuous and unstable. That's why I wanted to donate all the books to them, rather than finding a way to distribute them to random individuals. At Maslow, they will end up in the hands of a young person who doesn't have the ability to pop down to their local bookstore and buy the books they need or want. Our local libraries are only open 4 days per week, and many of these kids may feel more comfortable borrowing or taking books from Maslow than they would the public library.
A lot of folks make WBN a big event, which I think would be a lot of fun if more people in my area participated. Since I don't know of anyone else who signs up, my WBN is pretty unceremonious. I drive down, drop off the books, and leave.
This year, I decided to post a picture of my books on instagram & hashtag it with #WBN2013. After searching that hashtag, I found so many awesome photos from folks all across the country. It has definitely made it an easy decision to continue to apply to be a book giver each year and has also made me think more about trying to organize an event to get more people on board. Giving the gift of reading to someone is priceless. WBN makes giving that gift simple and free.
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| My WBN 2013 book choice was Bossypants by Tina Fey |
Have any of you ever signed up to be a book giver? If so, I would be very interested in hearing about your experience.
I've heard of it a little, when I worked at a bookstore, but never knew that much about it. Sounds awesome though and I like how you did it!
ReplyDeleteI just heard about it last year and luckily it was just in time to sign up to be a book giver. I don't have any idea how to hand the books out to random strangers, so dropping them all off at Maslow gets rid of all the books and allows me to help out an organization that is near & dear to my heart. 2 birds, 1 stone. :)
DeleteI'd never heard of it before, but it sounds like a fabulous idea.
ReplyDeleteAnything that deals w/ books & reading makes me happy! :)
DeleteI totally agree! I love WBN!
ReplyDeleteI missed the deadline to be a giver last year, but I managed to sign up in time this year. I chose 'They Eyre Affair' by Jasper Fford. We held an event at the library and a group of us gave our books there. It was great. We all dressed up as book characters or authors. We also had a quiz and a raffle, with signed books as prizes. I now need to think of what costume to wear next year!
ReplyDeleteSounds like so much fun!! I'm going to see if I can find a group of book givers in my area next year & see what sort of things they do. It would be a lot more fun to do something as a group, I think.
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